Not there yet, farmers return verdict on the cotton revival steps

A FARMER TENDS HER COTTON CROP: FARMERS HAVE LOST INTEREST IN THE CROP DUE TO LOW PRICES AND LACK OF MARKET. 

Growing cotton was a major economic activity in the former Nyanza Province until the early 1990s when the crop collapsed.

During the onset of devolved governance, farmers in the four counties of Kisumu, Siaya, Migori and Homa Bay were upbeat that the crop would be revived.

Hopes that grounded cotton factories would be revived were high because this was among the many campaign pledges made by politicians ahead of the last General Election.

Four years later and the promise hasn’t been realised; cotton factories in the region are still closed.

With little hope of reviving the crop, farmers now want the government to ban imported second-hand clothes — popularly known as mitumba — to help revive the collapsed textile industry in the country.

The government’s Vision 2030 blueprint for development and addressing poverty identifies cotton farming as an important sub-sector with the potential to benefit eight million people in drier areas of the country if properly exploited.

Indeed the Cotton Development Authority (Coda) was set up to co-ordinate the rehabilitation of the sector.

Homa Bay County Cotton Growers Association chairman Tobias Bala, who still has 70 acres under the crop, blamed liberalisation of the textile market in the 1980s for the collapse of the crop. Mr Bala said that the move led to importation of second-hand clothes and eventually the collapse of the textile industry.Farmers who spoke to the Business Daily said that banning second-hand clothes would play a big role in reviving the crop.

“When the market was liberalised farmers started selling their crop to middlemen and abandoned their cooperatives because of the continued fall in market prices which resulted in their exploitation,” said Mr Bala.

Market liberalisation

Liberalisation also led to dumping of textile goods from Europe and Asia into the Kenyan market.

He said that if the government banned mitumba cotton farmers would have reason to grow the crop because of the better prices it could fetch.

Upon market liberalisation, Kenyans turned to buying imported second-hand clothes which were much cheaper than locally made clothes.

Some farmers however blamed politics of marginalisation for the fall of cotton farming in the region.

Farmer Tom Olung’ore of Yimbo in Siaya County claimed that the government deliberately neglected the crop because it was grown in a region seen as staunchly in the opposition.

He also cited the absence of goodwill from previous regimes which neglected cotton even as other crops such as tea thrived.

“Successive governments failed to save farmers from cooperative societies’ debts and to offer subsidised farm inputs like they did for cash crops grown in other regions of the country,” said Mr Olung’ore. Local political leaders’ laxity to lobby for the resuscitation of the crop further deemed farmers’ hopes of its revival.

“Political leaders from this region haven’t made any effort to revive cotton growing like their counterparts in the former Central Province who have continuously lobbied for better terms for tea and coffee farmers,’’ said Mr Olung’ore.

The Cotton Board of Kenya had many ginneries in the country, mostly located in western Kenya where the crop was grown. The giant Kisumu Cotton Mills (Kikomi), Rift Valley Textiles (Rivatex) and other textile factories were household names during the crop’s better times in the 1970s and 80s.

Moi University resuscitated Rivatex and turned it into a research facility for cotton development, extension and production.

The facility has an integrated textile factory. The Eldoret town based industry also has outlets countrywide and sells its products locally and in international markets.

Its products include khangas, flannels, bed sheets and cotton clothes. Private investors took over cotton ginneries in Homa Bay and Kendu Bay towns.

An attempt to revive Kicomi failed two years ago when its receiver managers told a House committee, which had visited the plant, that the textile industry was no longer viable. During the visit, the legislators were told that shortage of land was an impediment to the revival of the crop.

Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma said the county had written to the National Land Commission to revoke titles of under-utilised land owned by companies.

Mr Ranguma said the factory could not be revived unless the production of biotechnology cotton was put in place. “We are pushing for a joint economic bloc that wants to grow biotechnology cotton. Unless we achieve this, the industry may take longer to revive,” said Mr Ranguma.

Ms Jennifer Ndege, an agriculture officer in Homa Bay County, attributed the decline of the crop to mismanagement of cooperatives and high production costs.

“Falling prices and mismanagement of farmers’ cooperative societies were impediments to the survival of the crop,” she said.

The government has in the past tried to revive the industry with little success. Former Finance minister Njeru Githae brought up the idea of banning second-hand clothes in 2012 with no success.

Last year, the government proposed to ban importation of second-hand clothes with a view to reviving the textile industry but nothing much has materialised.

Ironically, when President Uhuru Kenyatta was Finance minister he slashed the import duty on second-hand clothes. The rates are still applicable.

In 2000 the government tried to revive the textile industry with the aim of producing clothes for the export market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) in a bid to help revive the crop developed new high yield seed varieties suitable for specific regions of the country.

The recommended varieties are LKSA81M for Nyanza, Western and Rift Valley regions; while HART89M is suitable for Eastern, Central and Coast regions.

Nyanza county governments have also developed plans to revive the crop with Homa Bay conducting feasibility studies on the crop’s viability.

The four Nyanza counties are currently wooing farmers to grow the crop. Homa Bay County Executive for Trade, Industrialisation and Cooperatives Development, Prof Tom Ogada, said that re-introduction of the cash crop would improve the region’s economy and create jobs.

Homa Bay Governor Cyprian Awiti called on investors to help revive the crop.

“We call on investors to consider reviving the collapsed industry in Nyanza region which has black soil suitable for growing cotton,” said Mr Awiti.

Banning second-hand clothes, which employ thousands of people, is likely to raise a storm.

Statistics show that tens of thousands of Kenyans earn from the industry.

Some of the reasons that led to the collapse of the textile industry include the presence of higher paying crops, high input costs, and shortage of adequate schemes.