Is the lucrative Coffee Farming slowly Dying in Kenya?
Kelvin Wairimu 
Coffee farming has empowered Kenyans economically for decades. Over the years, Kenyan coffee has dominated the global coffee market for its sweet taste. For this reason, it has been used globally in coffee blending. This great demand made coffee Kenya’s highest revenue generator in the 90’s.
The coffee cooperatives were the strongest farmers’ movement in Kenya. Backed up by intensive coffee research by the Coffee Research Institute, Kenya became Africa’s coffee powerhouse.
Coffee cooperatives further diversified into real estate-buying buildings in Nairobi and other big cities in Kenya. Coffee prices were high, and the cost of production was low, giving farmers massive profits. Coffee farmers from Kiambu say the cooperatives made so much money that they used to loan money to the government. Farmers had no bank loans, as they do today.
The beginning of coffee fall
The problem began with the liberalisation of coffee milling, which introduced a bunch of private mills far from the main Kenya Planters Coffee Union. To remain afloat, private coffee mills introduced all means to get coffee from cooperatives, including bribes.
Private coffee mills knew that if coffee farmers remained united, it would be hard to get coffee to mills. Greed increased when cooperative board members misappropriated farmers’ money, sold asserts without farmers’ approval, and failed to pay farmers on time. The problem escalated to Kenya Planters Coffee Union, bringing it almost to its knees.
This allowed for the growth of private mills, which ended up controlling prices indirectly. This frustrated many farmers, making them quit coffee farming.
Political interference with the government’s failure to implement solid policies to protect coffee farmers also contributed to its failure.
The increased cost of chemicals and fertilizers worsened things. Labour became expensive, and coffee prices started falling. After years of no change, farmers started uprooting coffee, and the wave spread from Kiambu County to other counties.
Large coffee estates have become residential homes that are more profitable than coffee. The once largest coffee-growing region is now a farm of concrete buildings. The small sections remaining with coffee are just lying idle, unattended, including those owned by public institutions.
Wrong intervention
In a move to revive the industry, the government thinks the reduced production is only due to price moderation at the coffee auction and farmers’ debts. However, these are not the only causes. These are temporary causes of the decline. Permanent causes call for a permanent solution.
Waiving farmers’ debt has proved ineffective in Kenya, either in coffee or any other crop, such as sugarcane. When a hundred-acre estate uproots all its coffee, that permanent move cannot be reversed.
The best policy is one that intensifies the production of small-scale farmers. One that will enable farmers to produce more from their small number of bushes. This is through free chemicals and allowing a liberal market where buyers can buy directly from farms. Currently, cooperatives have failed farmers and cannot be trusted to revive the industry. If the approach is not changed, it will be history in Kenya.
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