Value addition project seeks to help revive Kenya's cotton sector

Kenyan cotton growers are looking forward to better earnings thanks to a new value addition initiative.

To improve growers' earnings, a Ministry of Agriculture-driven programme seeks to help farmers develop products they can sell directly to markets. The ministry has acquired more than 300 hand looms for distribution to farmers in key cotton growing areas of Western, Nyanza, Eastern and Central provinces to kick-start the project.

Growers are expected to use the machines to process thread and make such ready to sell items as kikoi and other garments. Selected farmers, mainly drawn from Mwingi, Machakos and Isiolo districts, are already being trained on making textile products at the Kenya Textile Training Institute (KTTI).

"They are learning how to weave garments using wooden hand looms, make batik, and tie and dye garments from cotton fibre," said Grace Njoki of the Cotton Secretariat. The hand looms run on human power and can operate even in remote areas with no electricity.

With the spinning and weaving skills, the farmers are expected to use part of their cotton output to develop products they can sell in local markets and earn instant cash.

Peter Kamau, who participated in training the farmers and in constructing some of the hand looms, said the value addition move is what the cotton industry needs to recover. Kamau said spinning and weaving cotton alone increases the value by more than 20 times, from an average price of Sh24 (US 36 cents) per kilogramme of raw cotton to Sh500 ($7.50) per kilogramme of a spinned product.

Phoebe Ng'endo, who has been weaving using hand looms since the 1980s, said weaving was a career that could support families. "Using the two hand looms I own, I have been able to meet all my needs and educate my children. I have also bought a plot of land from the proceeds of weaving," she said. Ng'endo is also a member of the Kenya Hand Loom Weavers, which has more than 40 registered members. "We sell our products in the local market and in all the East African countries and as far as the US," she said.

The group has exhibited its products in Texas in the US, Mauritius and Britain, said Ms. Ng'endo. Local weavers can also provide a ready market for farmers. Underlying these efforts is the government's determination to revive the cotton industry, which stagnated in the late 1990s.

In order to encourage farmers to revive cotton farming, the cotton secretariat is also helping them to acquire farm inputs, noted Njoki. "We are providing farmers with seeds, pesticides and fertilisers," she said.

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