PS Efforts to Revamp Tea Farms, Boost Farmers Returns

By Nguso Taso

Tea farmers from South Rift have got no choice but to back Agriculture Principal Secretary Dr Kiprono Rono tireless efforts to restore Kenya's main source of foreign exchange earners.

Tea as the only cash crop earner in South Rift had for years gone without good return for farmers from both Kericho and Bomet counties but upon regular vigorous business tours by the Ps Dr Rono,farmers have expressed hope of a bright future in the agriculture sector.

Prominent Kericho tea farmers Thomas Martin and Mwalimu Joseph Ngeno. Photo/ Nguso Taso

Two prominent tea farmers in Kericho,Thomas Martim and Mwalimu Joseph Ngeno lauded PS Rono push for scientific tea tasting at Mombasa auction.

For decades,the farmers said tea tasters in Mombasa had given wrong verdict on tea quality from the two counties after conducting tastes while their tongues are interfered with by what they had consumed the previous nights.

"With introduction of scientific tasting,farmer will not rest assured of getting better earning unlike the previous years when they earned low returns from their otherwise high quality tea" Mwalimu Ngeno told the Rural Times newspaper in Kericho.

Litein factory manager Raymond Kemei and PS Rono during recent visit. Photo/ Nguso Taso 

Martim said PS Rono is the only civil servant in President William Ruto government who has discovered a new formula of helping farmers get better returns from the cash crop.

Martim regretted the sharp differences between teas from Eastern and Western blocks attributing the low quality for teas in the west to wrong tasting at Mombasa auction.

Agricultural practising methods carried out in the eastern block were no better than what was carried out in the east.

Litein tea factory in Bureti. Photo/ Nguso Taso 

"we deserved even better returns from Western block due to favourable weather pattern here as opposed to the eastern region," Martim said.