A farmer tends to her coffee plants in Mathira. [Photo/ nation.co.ke]

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More than Sh7.2 billion is needed to revive the coffee industry, a coffee conference heard on Monday. A committee appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta last year to revive the sector said the provision of adequate finance is crucial to boost production and reduce poverty among farmers.Chairman of the Coffee Sub-sector Implementation Committee (CSIC) Joseph Kieyah said his team is pushing for allocation of Sh4.4 billion during the 2018/19 financial year.“There is a probability that the money being sought will be factored in the financial year’s budget while counties are equally being encouraged to add substantial finances over and above providing other technical services,” he said.The committee is holding a two-day consultative meeting on implementation of new coffee reforms with the governors and county executive committee members in Naivasha.Governors from coffee growing counties are expected to approve key resolutions to help in reviving the industry. In May 2016, Uhuru appointed a national task force on coffee sub-sector reforms to review the entire value chain and identify areas requiring interventions such as production, processing, and marketing of coffee and recommend comprehensive reforms among other key issues.The task force drafted new regulations, The Coffee (General) Regulations 2016, which the stakeholders are currently discussing before they are implemented.A key proposal in the regulations is an establishment of a central depository unit, a platform that would help in the handling of proceeds from the sale of coffee by auction or through direct sales.For example, the committee plans to push for a review of the current marketing laws to allow coffee growers to directly trade their coffee in the Nairobi Coffee Exchange.This entails combining various licenses - pulping, milling, and grower marketer along with the value chain into one grower miller license.The government is advancing drastic changes that seek to address gaps at the production level, restructure coffee co-operative societies, currently grappling with governance issues and the Nairobi-based marketing platform.