Coffee farmer Sabina Ndega, 59, has lived through the decline of the once-thriving industry in Kirinyaga county.
“In the late seventies and eighties, families with coffee bushes enjoyed a reputation for being well-off,” she says.
“My parents worked very hard to send all six of us to school and put food on the table, all thanks to the income generated from coffee farming.”
When she had her own daughters, Ndega’s parents gifted her a portion of land, including coffee bushes, to cultivate.
Unfortunately, coffee sales, prices and yields declined, making it difficult for her to provide for her family.
“I had to supplement my income through other means, including farming food crops such as spinach, cabbage, maize, arrowroots and bananas,” Ndega said.
“Currently, given the high input costs for coffee farming and the minimal profits, my children are not interested in pursuing coffee farming.”
Coffee bean harvests in Kenya have been falling, and increasingly, bean quality does not meet international standards.
Drought and other extreme weather exacerbated by climate change are part of the problem, increasing the need for farm inputs, including chemical pesticides.
UNREWARDED SWEAT
Alfred Muchiri, 34, is a small-scale farmer from Kiaragana village. He said planting coffee assures you a ready market but intermediaries reap all the benefits, so net profit is extremely low.
“If I hadn’t inherited the crop, I wouldn’t engage in it. A passive bond or money market fund investment offers better returns than toiling in those farms.”
Fellow farmer, Martin Macharia, says the annual coffee payout enables farmers to plan their financial priorities.
He says the payout should be increased to at least three times the current rate and disbursed punctually to enhance morale among farmers.
Macharia also encourages cooperatives and the county government to consider providing farmers with coffee varieties that are resilient to the effects of climate change, which he regards as a significant challenge facing the industry.
Francis Murage, a PhD student in sustainable rural development at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, has analysed the situation.
“The quantity and quality of Kenyan coffee have decreased over the years,” he said. Murage attributes the decline to a decrease in acreage under coffee.
He said farmers have been abandoning coffee farming due to high input costs, climate change and low and delayed payment by coffee cooperatives, among other factors.
Most coffee in Kirinyaga is produced by smallholder farmers, who collectively sell their harvests through cooperatives.
Murage said declining soil quality, poor on-farm coffee management practices, the cherry harvesting stage and coffee processing methods influence the falling quality.
Climate change has pushed up temperatures and caused more extended droughts and erratic rainfall patterns, exacerbating the region’s environmental challenges, he said.
Kenya has been warming more quickly than the global average, according to a 2024 report, Climate change impacts in Kenya.
“These situations have affected the flowering of coffee bushes, and some coffee wilts and dries up in extended drought periods,” Murage said.
MORE CHEMICALS USED
In the past, coffee farmers in Kirinyaga sprayed their coffee crops with copper-based fungicides once or twice a year to protect the bushes from adverse cold weather conditions.
However, recent years have seen a change, with farmers spending a lot of money on ineffective cold-resistant fungicides.
“The issue is that most farmers are misusing the pesticides, resulting in resistance by diseases and pests,” Murage said.
“This results in the ineffectiveness of these pesticides, affecting the young and expanding coffee berries with diseases such as Coffee Berry Disease (CBD). They later fall off from the trees, resulting in reduced yields.”
The scholar said rising temperatures have worsened drought impacts and increased the incidence of diseases and pests, such as CBD and thrips.
He advised farmers to adopt disease-resistant coffee varieties to minimise pesticide use, to use pesticides properly and to manage coffee bushes properly, such as by pruning them on time.
Dorothy Mukami is a large-scale coffee farmer and proprietor of an agro-vet retail shop in Kivai village. She said farmers’ struggle to afford pesticides directly affects their livelihood.
“We offer complimentary consultations, where farmers openly discuss the problems their crops are encountering,” Mukami said.
“By understanding their specific situations, we can recommend tailored solutions that sometimes don’t require chemicals or pesticides.”
PAYMENT ISSUES
Ndega urged cooperatives to offer fair and generous payments so farmers can afford to maintain their coffee plants better.
Murage agreed that market incentives, such as higher coffee prices and quicker payments by the cooperatives, would encourage farmers to cultivate coffee.
“Small-scale farmers are improving their old coffee bushes by grafting them with scions from disease-resistant varieties such as Ruiru 11,” he said.
“In the long run, this will improve productivity and reduce production costs, but it is better to replace the old bushes with the improved varieties.”
Murage listed the main factors contributing to the low uptake of coffee farming as high input costs, which are increasing production cost and reducing the profits, low coffee prices and delayed payment of coffee payouts by cooperatives.
He said farmers should adopt disease-resistant varieties to reduce production costs and enhance coffee production.
The farmer urged the government to support research and development into disease-resistant and high-yielding varieties and work with the coffee cooperatives to ensure seedlings are distributed to farmers at subsidised prices.
Further, he said limited knowledge of coffee management and high labour requirements for managing the bushes, pests and diseases discourage farmers from farming.
Moreover, Murage said cooperatives should continuously train members on good coffee management practices to ensure the production of high-value coffee.
“Cooperative leadership should adopt open and transparent governance, especially in coffee marketing, and ensure farmers are paid immediately after their coffee is sold,” he said.
In response to declining yields and quality, the Kirinyaga government launched some factories’ Coffee Revitalisation Programme.
The programme provided intern support to farmers by equipping the factories with reasonably affordable pesticides, fertilisers and methods for handling coffee bushes.
Ndega, however, remains skeptical.
“As a member of the Rung’eto farmers’ cooperative involved in this programme, I have yet to witness meaningful reductions in my farm input costs or noticeable increases in profits when the payouts are distributed,” she said.
The other cooperatives participating in the programme are: Mutira, Ngiriambu, Baragwi, Karithathi, Mwirua and Kabare.
With so many farmers struggling to maintain their labour-intensive coffee crops, Kenya must address these climate challenges effectively.
Solutions include ensuring prompt payments to farmers and promoting the planting of droughtand pest-resistant coffee varieties.
By doing so, Kenya can pave the way to a more sustainable future for its coffee industry and the communities that depend on it.
Sharon Kiburi is a multimedia data
journalist, researcher and media
trainer in data journalism, IFFS
and gender disparities. She is also
currently the East Africa Regional
Network Lead for the Africa-China
Reporting Project
