A farmer checking her coffee plants. [Photo/pinterest]
The quality of coffee produced in Gatwara, Embu County has improved immensely thanks to farmers’ training on good crop husbandry.
The coffee is fetching twice the amount farmers used to receive four years ago while output is also up six times.
Coffee farmers have had a troubled past with some farmers opting to uproot the crop due to little returns or delays in getting the money after selling the produce.
This has steadily been changing in recent years fueled by reduced production in major coffee producing countries that has pushed up producer prices.
Processors have taken advantage of this to train farmers on better husbandry methods to help boost yields as well as the quality of the produce.
Initially farmers in Embu used to harvest an average of 2 kilos per stem. The training has helped farmers increase yeilds to about 13 kilos per stem.
Last year, farmers in produced 14 million kilos with a kilo retailing at 100 shillings.
Good fortunes from coffee farming has lured the youth in the area to embrace the crop.
Farmers are expecting a drop in production this year due to drought experienced between September last year to March this year.