Kenya's stagnant pyrethrum sector is set to get a boost with the opening of a 400 million Kenya Shillings ($6 million ) factory in Nakuru. The plant, based at the headquarters of the state-run Pyrethrum Board of Kenya (PBK), will be used to extract pyrethrins, a natural product used to manufacture insecticides. The factory is expected to give a value-addition boost to the industry,
as extracted pyrethrin attracts higher prices than raw flowers.
A list of reforms meant to revitalise the Kenyan pyrethrum industry should be commissioned by May 2007, according to industry sources. The industry has hit a slump in recent years with the racking up Sh1.8 billion ($26 million ) in debts to farmers for previous deliveries.
Ms. Polyne Sego, the PBK managing director, said that currently two-thirds of Kenya's pyrethrum goes to the international market with the United States being the largest consumer. And while the board already exports five bulk insecticide products to European markets, the new factory is expected to harness local demand for natural insecticide products. The PBK says consumers are turning more to natural products over conventional insecticides made with synthetic pyrethroids, which carry environmental and health hazards.
The plant will be supplemented by other incentives to bolster the sector, including a revamped Pyrethrum Act, to encourage liberalisation of the crop's marketing by removing the monopoly status the PBK has enjoyed. A new pyrethrum plant and marketing agency, Midlands Limited, is already under construction in Nyandarua district ahead of the impending
liberalisation.
Farmers too are hoping to get morale boost from 800 million Kenya Shillings ($12 million ) released by the treasury to pay them for previous deliveries to the PBK. Sego said PBK expected to begin paying farmers the arrears in the second half of April, putting a dent in the Sh1.8 billion in debt the board has racked up. She said officers had been deployed countrywide to verify what pyrethrum farmers were owed by the PBK and the findings had been sent to ministry of agriculture headquarters in Nairobi.
According to an expert in pyrethrum production, if proper measures are instituted the country's previous high production can bounce back in two years because of relatively short time it takes for the crop to mature.
Pyrethrum is currently produced on about 26,000 hectares, with an average annual production of about 10,000 tonnes of dry flowers. But production has fallen from about 18,000 tonnes in the 1990s to just 1,000 tonnes in 2006, with the main blame being put on unreliable payments by the PBK. Agriculture minister Kipruto arap Kirwa said the country was targeting an annual production of 16,000 tonnes to regain its market share.
Pyrethrum earnings had been ranked fifth in the country's foreign exchange earnings after tea, coffee, horticulture and tourism but have since been overtaken by sisal.
Sego said that the farmers are working to improve productivity and are going back to the farms with much optimism. As a result production has improve and farmers receive Sh50 (75 cents ) per kilo of pyrethrum, which is now paid on delivery.
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