For the longest time, the stories that we have heard of the coffee sector in Kenya have been of corruption, theft and poverty. I can relate to these stories very well because my grandparents used to be coffee farmers. I can remember vividly how my grandfather used to seat outside his house on his favorite chair overlooking his coffee plantation and reminisce about the good old days when having a coffee plantation was equated to wealth. That was before corruption reared its ugly head and coffee brokers started fleecing the farmers as the state looked on and did nothing. Soon after the brokers started making millions while the farmers grew poorer and poorer. It reached a point where the farmers decided to cut down their trees as they seemed to benefit everyone else other than themselves.
So when I heard that Nestle had a program named Nescafe Plan that aids farmers increase the yield and quality of their coffee beans I became quite interested. Nestle apparently decided to start the project when they realized the coffee production in the country had declined to worrying levels. This decline meant that they would have to go without the raw materials needed to produce Nescafé, Dolce Gusto, Zoégas and Nespresso brands a situation that they could not just sit back and watch happen.
Luckily about two weeks ago I got the chance to visit Murue Farmers Cooperative Society in Embu and I was able to witness firsthand how Nestle has changed the lives of the coffee farmers for the better. Murue Farmers Cooperative Society is part of the 9 cooperative societies which started working with Nestle under the Nescafe Plan in 2011. At that the time cooperative societies were producing about 4.9 Million tons of cherry which have since risen to highs of 14 million tons of cherry in 2015. This rise in production was due to a number interventions by the Nestle. These include;
Training of farmers
Nestle hired an agronomist who trained the farmers on good agricultural practices like when and how to prune, efficient application of fertilizer and pesticides, training on mulching and the prevention of soil erosion among others.
This has had an effect of increasing the production of the coffee trees from 2.5 kg per tree before the training to about 13 kg per tree currently. This increase in quality and quantity of production has seen farmers raise their incomes significantly.
The training has also helped the farmers save on the cost of their inputs. In the past farmers did not know the timing and quantities of inputs that was needed by the crop, this often led to wastage of inputs like fertilizer and pesticides. With the knowledge that they now have, they are able to use these inputs efficiently hence saving money and ensuring a better return on investment.
Farmers have also stopped using banned chemicals to spray their crops which translates to a healthier crop and environment.
Better seed varieties
Nestle realized that some of the varieties being grown by farmers were greatly affected by diseases and were low yielding. They decided to introduce the Batian variety that is high yielding and also disease resistant. So far they have been able to distribute about 340,000 seedling to farmers under the programme.
Involvement of Youth and Women
The Nescafe Plan programme has incorporated a ‘Women and Youth in Coffee’ component to empower women and the youth to farm and take up leadership positions in coffee farming and management. At the moment about 25 percent of new farmers are between 18 to 35 and over 6,000 of the total farmers are women. This has enabled these two groups to make a living from coffee farming which has changed their lives for the better considering the levels of unemployment in the country.
A good example is Duncan Kamau who is a 35 year old coffee farmer. He studied Vetinary Medicine in University, he was unable to get a job and had no option but to go back home to farm. He started farming coffee seriously in 2012 and in his first year he got about 500 kgs of coffee berries. After undergoing the training he was able to raise this to 2,000 kgs in 2016. Income from his one acre farm has enabled him to build a house, buy a cow and a motorbike. The farming venture has become so lucrative for Duncan that he plans to buy more land so as to expand his coffee farm.
Ready Market
Due to the good farming practices taught under the programme, the quality of the coffee has risen significantly such that they have been given a certification 4C. This is a common code under the coffee community and means that the coffee is of a high quality. This accreditation has enabled the coffee get a good reputation at the world market which has seen more buyers seeking to buy it thus aiding farmers get better proceeds.
Coffee in Kenya can either be sold through the coffee auction or via a second window that allows one to sell directly to clients. The high quality of the coffee enables it to be sold directly which enables it to fetch better returns than it would have had it been sold via the coffee auction. As they say “chema chajiuza.”
Farmers under the programme were paid a total of Ksh. 630 Million in May 2017 for the 7.3 million kgs of coffee cherries that were delivered by farmers, this was against an average price of Ksh. 87 per Kg. However, depending on quality, some farmers were even getting highs of Ksh. 103 per Kg. When the programme started in 2011 the farmers were getting an average price of Ksh.42 per Kg for the 4.9 million Kgs of cherry and took home about Ksh. 205 Million so you can see how much of a difference this programme has made.
Food security
Nestle has entered into a partnership with an organization called Food Security in Ethiopia and Kenya (FOSEK). This is with the aim of improving food security of 70,000 coffee farmers across Kenya by 2020.
A baseline survey conducted before introducing the food security programme revealed that about 36.8percent of the coffee farming families become short of food for 3 months in a year, whilst at the same time having diets that have low diversity, typically being short of nutrient dense foods such as proteins, vegetables, dairy and fruit.
This is the reason why Nestle has partnered with FOSEK, who are nutritional specialists. Their work is to examine the dietary diversity in the Nescafé plan communities and encourage farmers to grow complimentary food crops for family consumption as well as sales to improve regional nutrition security.