EXPENSIVE FARM INPUTS KEEPING FARMERS FROM GROWING THE CROP.

JANE MUGAMBI 2ND DEC 2011.

Expensive farm inputs and escalating costs of production has scared farmers from doing coffee farming.



Michael Gichuki a coffee farmer said that high prices of farm inputs and escalating costs of production has scared away many from venturing into coffee farming.



Gichuki who markets his coffee through Thika Mills Limited after the collapse of Kenya Planters Cooperative Union (KPCU) in 2008 added that many farmers in the county should be motivated to resort to the growing of the crop whose production which is very low.



“The government should zero rate all agrochemicals like fertilizers and chemicals as a way of winning back farmers into the coffee industry” said Gichuki.





“This will ease farmers’ burden in light of the run away inflation rate currently being experienced in the country”





Gichuki also added that farmers need to be educated on importance of proper coffee farming practices as many long abandoned the practice after world prices for the commodity started fluctuating in the late 1990s.



He said that he is optimistic that the industry will regain its former glory with recent improvements in world prices saying that farmers who had uprooted the crop have started planting again after the prices started being promising.





“I encourage farmers to back government efforts in reviving the industry by going back into coffee farming.I am delighted to see that many farmers have started planting the crop after realizing that there is a bright future in the industry”said Gichuki.

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