The Government is finalising modalities of releasing the enhanced coffee cherry advance revolving fund to farmers, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has said.
Mr Gachagua said the government had allocated Sh4 billion to the fund in addition to Sh2.7 billion that was earlier allocated, promising to ensure deserving farmers benefit.
Speaking on Tuesday during an engagement with the Cabinet Secretary for Cooperatives and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Simon Chelugui and key stakeholders in the subsector at his Official Residence in Karen, the DP said the plan is being refined to ensure efficiency and transparency.
The DP said the Ruto Administration remains focused on returning to glory the sub-sector, promising to continue standing firm against attempts to derail the reforms.
“We don’t have any problem with anyone. The only problem is the farmer should get what they deserve because they have been oppressed for a long time,” said the DP.
Mr Gachagua has been tasked by President William Ruto to steer reforms in the sub-sector, also in tea and dairy, with the Government aiming to increase farm productivity and earnings for farmers.
The DP said the changes being implemented had the potential of making coffee farming a lucrative venture for small-holder farmers.
“We are determined, we are not letting go of these reforms because things are going to change. We are going to bring back coffee to where it was in the 1970s and 1980s when it was the number foreign exchange earners for our country,” he stated.
He said there was not room for failure as the farmers were looking up to the government for better proceeds.
” We must win because it used to work then. Nothing has changed. The farmers are the same, the soils are the same, the environment is the same. It is only when we liberalized the sector that the farmers were shortchanged,” the DP said.
Mr Chelugui said they will ensure the deserving farmers benefited from the Cherry Fund.
