Coffee farmers will be paid immediately they deliver cherries to factories if recommendations presented to President Uhuru Kenyatta are implemented. The report presented to President Uhuru Kenyatta Thursday by the taskforce on coffee sector reforms recommended that farmers be paid at least 40 per cent of the prevailing price on the spot for cherry they deliver. The Joseph Kieyah-led task force has also recommended that a subsidy programme be put in place, to cater for smallholder and small estate coffee farmers, who form the majority of the farmers. “Depending on the market prices, the minimum advance payments farmers will get for a kilo of cherry will be Sh15”, the report states. The task force has also recommended that immediate steps be undertaken to make coffee farming attractive to the youth since the average coffee farmer now is 60 years.

Source: The Star June 11, 2016 00:43 UTC