On January 14, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered reforms to help raise farmers' earnings and improve the tea value chain. KTDA has however argued that regulations will strangle smallholder tea farmers if adopted. According to its lawyer, Benson Millimo, the regulations will significantly reduce tea farmers' earnings; thereby achieving the opposite result of what their intended objective was. The stand-off leaves tea farmers in the dark over reforms, even as questions abound over who is pro-farmers, who have been told to expect lower bonuses this season due to a glut that reduced prices in the international market. KTDA chairman Peter Kanyago has pegged the low returns on overproduction of green leaf, which caused prices to plummet.

Source: The Star October 18, 2020 04:07 UTC