A litany of problems is tempting farmers in Baringo to clear their coffee farms and shift to subsistence farming.
Top on the list is the county government’s plan to build a Sh200 million coffee factory in Eldama Ravine subcounty instead of Baringo North.
"We remained loyal to growing coffee since 1970s, and so we cannot tolerate being suppressed," Baringo North Tugen Hills Cooperative Society chairman Mike Yatich says.
"Our people used to bear the challenges accompanying coffee farming like low prices and elusive markets. And now that a reward is coming, it sounds criminal for it to be snatched away again."
The factory was established by former Governor Benjamin Cheboi at the 2.5 acre Tugen Hills Farm in Katimok Forest, near Kabartonjo town. But plans are under way to have it moved to Koibatek ATC in Eldama Ravine subcounty.
However, the more than 2,000 farmers affected will not take this lying down.
"We have even set up a nursery bed containing over 90,000 coffee seedlings in preparation for the factory," Yatich says, decrying the potential disruption of their plans.
PUSH FOR WAIVER
The farmers also want the government to waive their loan debts, which have accrued to Sh50 million.
"We are left to engage in a push-and-pull game with financial institutions over outstanding loans since 2007, although we have made several frantic appeals to the government," Yatich says.
The chairman was addressing a growers’ excellence meeting held at the society’s coffee farm in Katimok.
Present were acting Agricultural and Food Authority director general Isabella Nkonge, Agriculture director Kibet Maina and Tugen Hills manager Nicolas Chemelil.
Nkonge declined to speak about the waiver, but she urged the farmers not to be discouraged and instead to continue to plant more seedlings. "Just like gold or education, coffee farming is the best investment that earns sweet returns to farmers."
But the farmers said they are being held back by debt. "We have almost all our proceeds deducted to repay the loans. Most of our members are now discouraged and threatening to clear their farms to grow subsistence crops such as maize and beans," farmer Solomon Chesaina said.
The farmers received the loans through the Coffee Development Fund financial intermediary, Boresha Sacco Society. They appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to waive the loans, blaming their default on low production due to diseases and persistent droughts.
Their plea comes barely a year after Uhuru wrote off Sh2 billion loan debts owed by coffee farmers’ saccos in Central, Nyanza and Eastern, in July last year.
"We thought the President was kind enough to waive all the loans for coffee farmers across the country, but we are left in the dark here in Baringo," Chesaina says, adding that most of them had secured the loans using their title deeds and they are yet to collect them.
DISEASE OUTBREAK
The farmers also decry the outbreak of an unknown disease that has decimated their bushes.
Bartabwa farmer Richard Kaptum, 65, says he has lost hope of harvesting a single berry since last year. He says although the leaves of his coffee bushes look green and healthy, the trees do not bear any berries. He says he used to spray his farm twice annually.
Another farmer, Wesley Kokwon, says he has a similar problem. "So I urge the national and county agricultural extension officers to urgently come and inspect to ascertain the cause of the situation," he says.
Juango Company specialist-cum-promoter Francis Borongi says the major diseases attacking farms in Baringo are Leaf Rust, Green Scales and Coffee Berry Disease. He however cannot identify the new disease.
"More research needs to be carried out to ascertain the root cause of the failed yields of the seemingly healthy coffee trees," he says. He urges famers to keep up the habit of spraying their coffee to protect against invasion of opportunistic diseases.