Cotton is a crop considered strategic under the Vision 2030, Industrialization Strategy and Agriculture Sector Growth and Transformation Strategy (ASGTS).
Under the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), cotton is targeted to contribute to the poverty reduction and economic development of the country.
Cotton is entirely produced by smallholder farmers, mostly under rainfed conditions with minimum inputs.
The farmers' average land holdings is less than 1 hectare.
The farmers are scattered and unorganized in their production and are not affiliated with producer groups such as cooperatives.
Cotton is currently grown in 21 counties with Lamu, Homabay, Meru, Siaya, and Busia being the top five (5) cotton producers contributing 83% of total seed cotton production.
The total area under cotton is approximately 30,000 acres producing a total of 3,860 MT of seed cotton valued at Sh231,570,490.
The average yield is 400 kg/ha which is below the world average of 700kgs/ha and therefore an area of intervention.
The yield potential for hybrids and Bt hybrids is 3800 kg/hectare under irrigation.
The total lint produced in 2023 was 7,000 bales valued at Sh310 million.
Cotton lint is processed by 6 operational ginneries namely; Equatorial Nuts Processors Ltd (Meru), Makueni Ginneries Ltd (Makueni), Zayn Agro Industries Ltd (Kitui), Rift Valley Products Ltd (Baringo) and Luanda Farmers’ Cooperative Union Ltd Ginnery (Busia).
Despite its enormous potential to contribute to the economic development of the country, the cotton industry is still underperforming due to several challenges.
These include competition from “Mitumba”, lack of a certified seed system, low productivity and profitability, price volatility, weak farmer groups and high cost of production.
Cotton Revitalization
The government has prioritized cotton under the BETA Plan to improve the value chain and facilitate import substitution for both lint and seed cake.
Towards this end, the Agriculture and Food Authority is collaborating with several stakeholders to revitalize the cotton industry.
The cotton value chain upgrading strategy will focus on three broad investment areas to address the challenges and gaps in the cotton value chain.
These include increasing production and productivity for targeted rural smallholder cotton farmers, enhancing processing efficiency and marketing and development of a Cotton Policy.
The targets are to Increase production and productivity of seed cotton from 103,397 acres (2024) to 160,000 acres by 2027; increase yield from 600kgs/acre in 2024 to 900kgs/acre by 2027; increase processing of cotton oil from 4,094 MT to 19,204 MT by 2027and increase processing of lint from 20,267 MT to 80,017 MT by 2027.
Other targets are to increase processing of seed cake from 36,032 MT to 140,830 MT by 2027; develop aggregation stores from 258 to 1,000 by 2027; establish 16 more modern ginneries by 2027 from the current 6 ginneries; and establish 19 more seed milling plants from the current three.
To realize the objectives, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry have been assigned the role of driving the Cotton Revitalization Agenda.
Seed support to farmers will be key in order to realize the targeted 103,397 acres for 2024 for both long and short rains.
All the key players have supported farmers with both bt cotton seeds and Open Pollinated Varieties.
The publicity and promotion of cotton as a raw material for industries and food security crops coordinated by the Authority has made many governors who had shunned the crop reconsider their position.
So far,12 counties have prioritized cotton in their County Integrated Development Plans and the others have allocated resources to support cotton.
Cooperatives have also been identified as enablers to the achievement of the targets in the cotton revitalization plan.
In an effort to introduce transformative interventions in the sub-sector especially where Cooperatives are playing a central role in the value chain, the Authority and key Stakeholders have selected Busia County for piloting an integrated value chain right from the ward-based cooperative to Textile Mill with operations and support guided by contracts and an MOU.
The Authority’s role is to coordinate the parties in the undertaking.
A total of 4,000 acres of cotton was planted under this initiative and it has provided lessons for future policy and operational interventions.
Further, it is exciting to note that, following the Authority’s promotion of cotton in various counties, the crop has found a place in two World Bank Projects namely the National Value Chain Development Project (NAVCDP) and the Food Security Resilient Project (FSRP).
The counties that have incorporated cotton under NAVCDP are; Busia, Siaya, Kisumu, Homabay and Kitui while those that have prioritized cotton under FSRP are Baringo and Lamu.
These projects will provide extra support in the promotion of this crop especially on investments in value addition.
The value addition of cotton has previously concentrated on the processing of lint with little regard to the value that can be derived from other products of cotton seed.
Currently, the country imports 255,000MT of seed cake for animal feeds production worth Sh5.6 Billion.
Through increased cotton production and diversification in value addition of cotton seed, it is projected that imports of seed cake will be reduced by 50% by 2027.
In the year 2021, Eni Kenya invested in Makueni and commenced the business of milling cotton seeds among other oil crops.
The Authority has collaborated with Eni Kenya to develop a backward linkage to ginneries for the supply of cotton seeds. This has contributed to an increase in the value of cotton seeds.
Cotton seed previously fetched Sh18 per kg but now fetches Sh55 per kg for farmers.
This value is incorporated in the pricing model and will sustain seed cotton prices at a premium level.
Under the BETA Plan, it is envisaged that every Ginnery will have a milling facility so that the optimum value of cotton is obtained.
To enhance ginning capacity in tandem with targeted cotton production, the Authority, in collaboration with the State Department of Cooperatives, identified counties for the establishment of modern ginneries under a cluster system, especially in the clusters that do not have any ginnery.
State Department of Cooperatives has invested Sh100 Million to modernize Luanda Ginnery in Busia County and is currently establishing a new ginnery for PAVI Cooperative in Kwale County.
The other value-addition initiative that the government has undertaken in recent times is the modernization of Rivatex EA Ltd which has enabled the factory to increase its processing capacity to the current 16,000MT.
The other two privately owned Textile Mills that have improved their processing efficiencies are Supra Textiles (2,880MT) and Thika Cloth Mills (1,200MT).
These factories are already supplying Government Departments with Textile materials and especially Uniformed Forces courtesy of the Government policy of “Buy Kenya, Build Kenya” as well as the domestic market.
Regulatory and Policy Framework
The policy and regulatory environment plays an important role in supporting value chain integration and private investments to enable the country to realize the BETA targets.
The Authority is committed to playing its regulatory role in the value chain and towards this end, the Authority has begun the process of developing new regulations for the cotton industry.
With the government-led and private sector-driven and whole value chain approach and data-driven farmer-centric interventions, we envisage a new dawn in the cotton industry that will immensely improve the livelihoods of farmers and contribute to the GDP of the country.
It is also envisaged that an overarching cotton policy will be developed in the near future to address all the issues along the cotton value chain including access to subsidized inputs and credit access among others.
Bruno Linyiru is the Director General of Agriculture and Food Authority.