Kindiki says Kenya Kwanza’s agriculture reforms bearing fruit » Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 27 – Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has exuded confidence that the Kenya Kwanza administration is on course to fulfill its manifesto pledges.

Speaking during a consultative engagement with over 5,000 coffee farmers and leaders of 24 cooperative societies in Runyenjes, Embu County, Kindiki cited that the sustained reforms in Agriculture Sector have started yielding results.

“This season, coffee prices have hit record highs of between 120 and 148 shillings per kilogram of cherry, a first in 35 years,” he said.

The DP added that the Government is streamlining the fertiliser subsidy programme for coffee farmers while new legislation to govern coffee and cooperatives will be enacted and assented to within the next month or two.

He assured that the government is in fast-tracking the verification of debts owed to coffee cooperative societies to ensure that only legitimate claims benefit from the 6.8 billion shillings debt waiver by the Government.

Other interventions include availing adequate amounts of coffee seedlings to farmers, subsidizing the cost of pesticides and an ambitious coffee infrastructure modernization programme to upgrade the coffee processing methods.

Kindiki further boasted in Government has embarked on robustly marketing of Kenyan coffee globally after dismantling the cartels that controlled the milling, brokerage and marketing of coffee.