Small-scale tea farmers in Bomet have been asked to ignore Kenya Tea Development Agency CEO's views that they could uproot their crops if they are unhappy.
Bomet county assembly speaker Shadrack Rotich instead told the farmers to take tea as an investment “rather than a normal crop on their farms to satisfy an urgent need."
Rotich said it was wrong for farmers to uproot tea bushes "just because of poor prices" as indicated in this year’s publicised bonus payout.
He said the crop husbandry that comes with attending to tea cannot be compared with other crops, hence the need to preserve it as the prices will be favourable in future.
“When you consider the number of years it takes for tea to mature until it is plucked, it is quite some time compared to other crops,” he told the Star.
He said KTDA should, if means good for the farmers, also explain what will happen to the factories which were financed by farmers.
Last week, the tea agency's CEO Lerionka Tiampati said farmers could turn to alternative crops if tea was not profitable.
"We have no say over what farmers want to do with their tea bushes. They are the overall owners of the plants," he said.
His remarks followed reports of farmers resorting to uproot tea bushes as a result of poor pay in the recently released bonus payouts.
KTDA-managed factories earned Sh69.77 billion from tea sales in 2018-19.
Out of this, farmers will receive Sh46.45 billion to cover the first payment (Sh17.69 billion) and second and final payment (Sh28.76 billion).
Rotich said there was a need for concerted efforts among stakeholders to address the tea prices.
He said leaders should come together and chart the way forward on how to resolve the crisis and possibly decide on sale or marketing of tea without involving KTDA.
Edited by R.Wamochie
