In response to the recurring environmental challenges and declining coffee production, the Nandi County government and the national authorities have scaled up efforts to revive coffee farming in Tindiret Sub-County.

The initiatives range from land restoration and seedlings distribution, pricing reforms, cooperative strengthening and women-led empowerment programme.

Coffee sector revival follows on-going push to prop sugarcane cultivation in Tindret. Already plans are underway to build a sugar factory in the sub-county that is keen wrest control of local sugar production from western Kenya.

County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Agriculture and Cooperative Development Kiplimo Lagat announced recently a large scale rollout of over two million seedlings to be distributed to the farmers this year.

Farmers in Tindiret – part of the southern coffee belt – are being mapped, profiled, registered and trained to ensure they realise good yields.

These endeavours are reinvigorating the coffee sector and positioning it not just as a cash crop, but as a tool for environmental resilience, gender equity and economic transformation.

The county has committed to constructing some 40 kilometres of furrows in the landslide-prone Kapchoria and Tindiret wards, to restore degraded land and promote sustainable farming practices.

Nandi Woman Representative Cynthia Muge launched a ‘Kahawa na Mama’ programme, which in the first phase 2023-2024 a total of 150,000 certified Batian and Ruiru 11 seedlings were distributed to 900 women in 63 self-help groups, while in the second phase 2024-2025, 500,000 seedlings were given out to 4,000 women across the county.

Groups such as Mogobich Progressive and Kapng’etuny Women have revived old tea estates and started earning income, and some even intercrop with avocado for added resilience and earnings.

The programme is also enhancing processing capacity by advocating for new pulping lines and solar dryers as well as expanding extension services by training 60 coffee-focused extension officers by 2026.

To streamline the operations of the sector, the county has formed a Nandi Coffee Cooperative Union (NCCU) and a coffee brokerage company as well as established a farmers-owned coffee factory.

In the same breath, the national government has injected Ksh6.7 billion ($52 million) into the Coffee Cherry Advance Revolving Fund, raising advance payments to Ksh80 (0.62) per kilogramme of coffee delivered to factories, four times the previous price.

This policy change has attracted farmers back to coffee farming by ensuring immediate financial returns and strengthening market competitiveness and curbing middle men exploitation. The deliberate efforts undertaken by the county and national governments, are transforming the coffee sector from a fading relic into a thriving cash crop in Nandi County.

• A Tell Media / KNA report / By Sammy Mwibanda

A coffee plant. The national and governments are partnering to transform the coffee sector through initiatives like issuance of free seedlings and ensuring competitive pricing.