• Currently, there are only three active public ginneries in the country.
• She said 85 per cent of the clothing made in Kenya is sold to the US, yet the raw materials used are imported.
The Industrialisation ministry has called for the revival of ginneries and cotton farming.
Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina said this would improve livelihoods, living standards and the economy. She said the county would be self-sufficient in textile production and would not have to rely on imports.
She said 85 per cent of the clothing made in Kenya is sold to the US, yet the raw materials used are imported.
“Most of that textile apparel has been made from imported raw materials from China and India,” she said during a Science Café webinar.
The CS said the money used to buy the raw materials would boost the economy if the country produced raw materials locally.
“Assuming 60 per cent of the eventual value was actually value of the fabric, it means we sent away nearly 350 million dollars’ worth in buying goods outside the country,” she said.
Currently, there are only three active public ginneries in the country, one each in Eldoret, Western and Makueni. The rest are either private or community-owned. Maina expressed the need for the country to boost its agricultural output to enhance its export base.
“If we were to only achieve 5% of the US market within the next five years, our export earnings would increase from Sh60 billion to more than Sh2 trillion,” she said.
She called for more investment in the textile sector, explaining that it is key to the growth of the economy given its potential to create many jobs across its value chain.
At the Coast, for instance, the cotton grown is taken all the way to the ginnery in Makueni for processing. Hence, having a ginnery in the coastal region would save transport cost.
“We need to revive the ginneries within the Coast and the Department of Co-operatives has an active plan on ginnery revival,” she said.
During the virtual meeting, Dr Charles Waturu, lead GM cotton scientist, advised farmers to shift to hybrid cotton from conventional cotton to reap massive benefits.
“Kenyan cotton production system needs to change from conventional cotton that is the open pollinated varieties to hybrids,” Waturu said.
The benefits include increased yield— twofold or threefold. GM cotton also matures one month earlier and higher quality in terms of fiber strength.
Waturu said speculation that BT cotton is unsafe should not be encouraged.