The state is planning to boost pyrethrum growing from the current 8,000 to 30,000 acres by 2027, government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura has said.
He said Nakuru county is leading among the 19 pyrethrum growing areas with 3,000 acres under the cash crop, followed by Nyandarua and West Pokot, respectively.
Mwaura said the government was making significant effort to revitalise the subsector that used to sustain hundreds of families in the in the 1980s and 1990s.
Speaking at the Kenya Pyrethrum Processing Company (KPPC), Mwaura, who is on a week-long media tour of the county, said the industry is providing income to more than 200,000 smallholder farmers in the 19 counties.
He has been touring various government development projects among them, the stalled Itare Dam in Kuresoi North.
“In the 1990s, Kenya was a major economic powerhouse in pyrethrum production commanding over 70 per cent of the international market but is has been surpassed by some countries as small as Rwanda, which is the size of Central Kenya region,” Mwaura said.
He said it is unfortunate the factory that had employed hundreds of people shut down due to reduced levels of flower deliveries.
Farmers uprooted the crop and started growing other crops such as maize, potatoes, cabbages and carrots due do non-payment or delayed payment of their deliveries.
Mwaura praised KPPC chief executive officer Mary Ontiri for her decision to be paying an advance Sh300 per every kilos delivered to that company.
“This incentive has been motivating farmers to cultivate the crop and diligently deliver it to KPPC regardless of the competition from other processors,” he said.
John Njoroge, a flower grower in Njokerio, Njoro subcounty, appealed to the government to provide them with clean planting materials.
He said there was a pyrethrum breed producing flowers with up to three per cent pyrethrin content, thereby earning farmers up to Sh700 per kilo.
Appealing to Mwaura during a farm visit at his home, Njoroge asked the government to provide seedlings of the superior pyrethrum to farmers.
The farmer said KPPC was a farmers company and urged the government spokesperson to ensure they were represented in the management.
Njoroge also appealed to the government to help the company repossess KPPC assets, which have been lost to grabbers over the years.