The Kisii government has been urged to create a special unit of extension services to tackle challenges affecting the coffee sector.
A task force report released on Tuesday recommends among other things, continuous education on farmers with a view to enhancing sector's productivity.
“The county government should second key technical staff to the Coffee Union to establish internal structures for the union in the medium term. This is to facilitate the establishment of an optimal management model for the sector,” cites the report.
The report was released by the County Executive Committee Member for Agriculture Vincent Sawe.
Sawe said they have already implemented part of the recommendations highlighted in the report.
“We are still studying the other parts of the report but will implement it in phases,” said the minister.
He said the sector had already undergone transformation since the devolution took effect.
Governor James Ongwae had appointed Elijah Mochorwa, now deceased, to head the task force.
The report took two years to compile.
The members were tasked to study what was ailing the sector and ways to revamp it.
The report further calls for the enactment of legislation to govern the composition and eligibility of stakeholders into the union board and its affiliates.
“The composition of the board should allow for incorporation of professionals with key competencies to join the board. The legislation should also provide clear guidelines on elections of the Board.” said the report.
The task force said officers that had misappropriated the sector's funds be barred from management.
The report, however, failed short of addressing how funds siphoned from the sector from unscrupulous officers would be recovered.
It, however, vouched for the election of officers with integrity to run the sector to break from the hold of dubious figures that had run it down.
On the policy front, the county government was tasked with establishing legislation on the roles and functions of the stakeholders in the sector.
“This,” said the report, “will eliminate any conflicting roles and ambiguities of the various stakeholders,”.
Members further urged the county government to establish a clear industry structure that eliminates the role of middlemen.
The report also roots for the establishment of a security system to address coffee thefts and security of coffee factories and its assets.
The report also calls for investigations into the fraudulent sale of a land in Simbauti area in Borabu sub-county said to have been owned by farmers
“The sale of part of Simbauti farm should be investigated,” states the report.
The report also calls for the dispossessing on assets that are non – profitable and are those that are not aligned with the strategic direction of the sector.
“This,” said the report will unlock value of the assets for the benefit the shareholders.”
It also advises the county government to assist the union and the societies to renew expired leases and obtain titles for any unregistered land.
It further advised that all titles be held by the county government in trust on behalf of the union and gave it power to approve any sale.
The task force consisted of 14 members with two others being external consultants.
Sagwe said he was happy with the recommendations which he described as holding the key to the bright future in the sector.