Small-scale farmers win big as Munya unveils new tea regulations
Small-scale farmers will be the biggest winners in the new tea regulations launched yesterday by the Agriculture Cabinet secretary Peter Munya. He said the new regulations seek to seal all avenues used for years by various value chain players to siphon farmers’ hard earned cash.
Equally, the rules, the CS said, will give farmers more control of the industry that has for years been under the management of secondary players mainly at processing, marketing and auction level.
Warehouse owners
Main tea players including directors, brokerage companies, traders and buyers and warehouse owners will be hard hit by the new laws as they will start earning reduced fees from services they offer to growers.
Munya said the regulations seek to end what he termed as historical distress that small-scale farmers have been subjected to by the secondary players.
The regulation, the CS confirmed, have been forwarded to the Office of the Attorney General to be fine-tuned to ensure they conform with the Constitution.
They will later be forwarded back to the ministry for publication. Later the regulations will be presented to Parliament for discussion and approval. In the next one week, Munya said, he will appoint a new taskforce to spearhead the implementation of the regulations.
“The government’s mission is to end ‘cartelised capture’ that has been perpetuated by numerous value chain players for years exposing smallholder farmers to endless agonies,” he said.
