Tea Farmers Receive their Bonuses amid the High Cost of Living

Tea farmers, mainly small-scale farmers under the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) wing, will receive their final bonuses of 37.11 billion shillings this week.

The disbursement will be in addition to the monthly payment capped at 25.78 billion shillings bringing the total amount of the 2021/22 financial year to 62.89 billion shillings, an 18.74 billion shillings increase from the 44.15 billion shillings paid last year.

“This year’s bonus is projected to be the highest paid to tea farmers across the growing counties since 2016. Agriculture CS Peter Munya Said.

The payment, expected to reflect in the farmers’ bank accounts this week, is part of the ongoing reforms in the tea sector seeking to benefit both the sector and the individual farmer.

Last year, the government placed a minimum reserve price of $2.43 (275 shillings) per kilogram at the Mombasa tea auction to curb declining earnings by the small-scale growers. This saw the average tea prices for the smallholder teas record a 40 per cent increase at the auction from an average of 1.90 USD/Kg to USD 2.66 in September 2021, pushing the revenue for the tea smallholder grower up by 172 million shillings within one month.

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At the same time, KTDA enhanced the initial green leaf monthly payments to the smallholder tea growers in July 2021 from 17 to 21 shillings per kilogram.

The new tea laws have since tamed the tea brokers’ efforts to take over the sector at the expense of the impoverished farmer. This is projected to save tea farmers over 1 billion shillings annually and result in more earnings.

To reduce the ever-high cost of tea production, the government has made specific provisions such as the supply of subsidized fertilizer.

Through the Tea Board of Kenya, the Ministry of Agriculture has also finalized the guidelines meant to direct the use of mechanical tea harvesting to save on the high labour cost.