- Data from Fibre Crops Directorate shows that area under cotton production reduced to 9,987 hectares in 2020 from 18,000 hectares in 2019.
- However, 6,196 bales of 185kgs of cotton lint were produced in 2020 valued at Sh206 million.
Image: image: ALPHONCE GARI
Image: FILE
Farmers from the Eastern region will receive more that 20 metric tones of hybrid and genetically modified cotton seeds for the short rains planting season.
The counties include Kitui, Makueni, Machakos, Embu, Meru, Kirinyaga, Tharaka Nithi and Taita Taveta.
Agriculture CS Peter Munya said the government is keen on increasing cotton production in the country and help improve farmers’ income.
Munya said the ministry will be distributing 10 metric tons of genetically modified cotton seeds which will be complemented with 16 metric tons of hybrid seeds.
The CS spoke on Thursday during a media briefing on some of the reforms in the agriculture sector.
Kenya has two cotton production seasons, the short rains is for the Eastern region, while the March-April long rains season is for the Coastal belt and Western part of the country.
Munya said with commercial production of Bt Cotton, Kenya has the potential of joining the big textile league and improving the livelihoods for millions of people who will be engaged directly and indirectly in the value chain.
ISAAA director Margaret Karembu said Kenya is among seven countries in Africa that are currently growing Bt cotton, others include Ethiopia, Sudan, Swaziland, Nigeria, South Africa and Malawi.
She said globally, Bt cotton was first commercialised 25 years ago. In Kenya, the technology was adopted in 2019 after the Cabinet approved cultivation and in 2020 farmers started accessing the Bt cotton seeds.
As of 2020, the Bt cotton is being grown in over 25 million hectares globally and by close to 18 countries.
Kenya is the latest country to adopt Bt cotton growing with close to 11.9 million hectares of Bt cotton.
“However, many countries in Africa are still in the debate mode on the crop that is genetically improved and resistance to the bollworm,” said Karembu during a virtual Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology meeting.
Solomon Odera, director incharge of the Fibre Crops Directorate under the Agriculture and Food Authority said cotton is currently being grown in 24 counties with only four operating ginneries and three spinning and weaving mills which produce garment and other products.
He said at the peak of cotton production in Kenya, there were 24 ginneries in the country but many collapsed due to challenges such as low productivity, high cost of production and marketing inefficiencies.
Data from Fibre Crops Directorate shows that area under cotton production reduced to 9,987 hectares in 2020 from 18,000 hectares in 2019.
However, 6,196 bales of 185kgs of cotton lint were produced in 2020 valued at Sh206 million. This is an increase from 5, 432 bales produced in 2019 at the value of Sh190 million.
Odera said the government has taken up interventions to improve cotton production and revive ginning mills.
“Some of the intervention measures include introduce superior varieties of Bt and hybrids, establishment of a certified seed system, introduction of modern ginning factories, promotion of production contracts & zoning, establishing price stabilisation mechanism and enhancement extension services,” Odera said.
This is in addition to investing in energy efficient solutions, empowering farmers to own primary level of the cotton value chain (ginning and seed milling) through cooperatives and quality based pricing.
“We have also introduced cluster farming and so far we have six clusters in different counties and we hope that in future, each of the clusters can have a ginnery,” he said.
-Edited by SKanyara