Kenya: Pack Products, Farmers Told

Source from:  The Nation (Nairobi) January 2, 2007 01/05/2007

Adding value to cash crops can stop the exploitation of small-scale farmers by middlemen, a study by a university lecturer has said. The study by University of Nairobi don Mary Kinyanjui said basic processing of such crops as coffee, tea, cotton and tobacco would go a long way in encouraging the growth of small-scale agribusinesses that would revolutionalise agriculture and improve farmers' bargaining power in international markets. Dr Kinyanjui, of the Institute of Development Studies, recommended that farmers start small-scale enterprises for processing such commodities as mattresses, sanitary towels or home-made tea and coffee. "Some level of development should also involve technology-oriented partners to train small-scale farmers on basic processing of their products such as roasting of coffee, ginning cotton, tobacco and tea processing," she said while launching the report: Justice in Globalised Production and Trade Systems: The case of bonded Small-Scale Farmers in East and Southern Africa. Free markets The study was carried among coffee, tea, cotton and tobacco farmers in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi. It concluded that small-scale farmers did not have a direct link to free markets as intermediaries act on their behalf. "Very few small-scale farmers participate directly in international trade and they produce blindly and are illiterate about markets," the report said. Absence of funds for marketing and poor market information flow hamper the ability of producers to earn real returns. Blending and packing, the most lucrative part of the tea trade for instance, is mostly done by the multinational companies in buyer countries. This way the producers lose rights and ownership of their commodities once they have delivered the products to the intermediaries, she said. Enditem