Kiambu uses metallic coffee drying tables to curb deforestation

In a bid to participate in the fight against climate change, Kiambu County is in the process of replacing traditional wooden coffee drying tables with metallic ones in all Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative societies in the county.

For more than 50 years, farmers in Central Kenya have been growing coffee as their main cash crop, and selling it to local factories, where the coffee goes through the process of drying done on wooden tables constructed using strong poles as stands.

This means each year the factories have to cut down several mature trees to construct the wooden drying tables, which are replaced annually, hence causing major deforestation problems in the region

In a bid to educate the societies on the dangers imposed, Kiambu County, through the Directorate of Co-operative Development has initiated a massive distribution of metallic coffee drying beds in most of the Farmers’ Cooperative societies within the county.

Peter Ndegwa, officer in charge of Cooperatives, Livestock and Development in the county said the exercise aims to consequently improve the quality of coffee berries and benefit the ecosystem as there will be less demand for wood, which protects and conserves forests in the area.

“We have already distributed 38 metallic drying beds to 15 Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative societies across the county and we intend to distribute more before the year ends,” Ndegwa said.

Apart from eco-friendliness,, Ndegwa said the metallic drying beds are long-lasting, cost-effective and clean, unlike the wooden ones

“While the main advantage is saving a lot of trees, which affects climate, metallic drying tables bring a range of other benefits like having cleaner coffee berries and insects like ants are controlled,” he said.

Ndegwa said wooden tables are prone to becoming uneven, which can affect the quality of the coffee, as is a concern when selling to an international market.

According to a report by the Kenya Coffee Board, about 170,000 hectares (420,000 acres) of land in Kenya is used to grow coffee, where 700,000 smallholder coffee farmers are organised into nearly 600 cooperatives.