Mr. Gerald Mutinda, a Kenyan who works with CeedCo (Community Empowerment Enterprise Development through Cooperatives), has said that the Cooperative movement has greatly benefited the small scale farmer in Kenya.
Speaking on Tuesday to an audience at ABF Huset in Stockholm, Mr. Mutinda said that recent studies showed that the volume of farm produce procured through brokers had gone down from 70% to 50% as a result of both Cooperatives activities and increased purchase of farmer’s produce directly by supermarkets.
He gave the examples of Mwimbi Diary Cooperative, Muramuki Cooperative and the Banana Association that were all set up to look into the interest of the small scale farmer in the areas where he works. He said that after Murumuki was set up, the price of passion fruits went up from ksh 10 per kilo to Ksh 60 per kilo.
“We encouraged banana farmers to begin bringing their produce by the road side to sell them on specific days so that they could be able to sell at better prices”, he said. He said that the key to improving the condition of small scale farmers in Kenya was for primary producers to get a better deal in the market.
Mr. Mutinda said that traditionally, Kenya has had a strong Cooperative movement but that liberalization had decreased the role of the State within the Movement resulting in lack of activity by State run boards across the country.
He said that supermarkets had stimulated the emergence of medium scale farming because farmers who channel their produce through supermarkets gained more money. He pointed out that the big problem is that both brokers and medium scale farmers do not want the small scale farmers to organize because brokers and medium scale farmers feared losing economically in the situation.
“Access to financial services by small scale farmers would greatly facilitate marketing of farm produce and this would increase income”, he said.
He gave the example of a young female farmer who was producing sukuma wiki (kales) and who was forced to transport small portions of her produce to the market using a bicycle.
He said that despite Kenya’s economy having grown by 5.2% in 2005, the country still remained one of the poorest countries in the world. Mr. Mutinda later fielded questions from the audience.
Okoth Osewe
makosewe@gmail.com
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