I’m just back from Kenya, where I visited the Ngere tea factory, one of the 61 Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) factories, and which recently became Rainforest Alliance certified. The KTDA is an amazing organisation representing 530,000 smallholder tea farmers dotted across the tea growing regions of Kenya. It produces 60% of Kenya’s tea, and Kenya is the world’s biggest tea exporter, which makes the KTDA a significant player on the world’s tea market. Each farmer owns less than half an acre of tea, and supplies the nearby factories through a network of collection centres, where the green leaf tea is checked for quality (‘two leaves and a bud’), weighed, and then transported to the factory by the KTDA trucks for processing into black tea.
Making tea is a fascinating process whereby the leaves are withered, chopped into tiny fragments, fermented, dried, graded and finally bagged for export in neatly stacked paper sacks. Every step of the way involves careful quality controls and tests to ensure the tea comes out just right.
Francis Njogu picking tea in the FFS trial plot on his farm, which helped him and other farmers determine more productive cultivation techniques
I visited a farmer called Francis Njogu, who owns a beautiful farm sloping down off a ridge along a narrow-ish strip of land. As well as tea, Francis grows maize, vegetables, guava, coffee, avocado and fresh flowers for export, and he has several dairy goats too.
Francis took part of one of the first Farmer Field Schools (FFS) at the KTDA, under a DFID-funded project in partnership with Unilever between 2006 and 2008. Farmer Field Schools are a kind of classroom without walls, where farmers come together every fortnight to learn and test new growing techniques on their own farms. It’s a participatory process guided by agronomists, where farmers experience the benefits of better crop husbandry for themselves and discuss social issues such gender empowerment or HIV/Aids prevention.
Francis’ farm was used to pilot various growing techniques known as ‘tipping-in’, a crucial moment in the plant’s growth where the height of the tea bush is set, and which has many implications for plant productivity. On average, farmers who took part in the FFSs saw their yields increase by 5-15% in just two years – a huge success. The project included training on sustainable agriculture principles, enabling the factories to apply for Rainforest Alliance certification.
Changes on farm and in the factory as a result of certification are striking. As well as boosting their tea yields and keeping better records on how they manage their farm, farmers are now protecting themselves when they use chemicals. The factory has distributed 140,000 tree seedlings to the farmers, who are now also ensuring that streams and rivers are protected. After removing thirsty eucalyptus trees(which are not native to Kenya) from the edges of streams, they have found that many previously dry streams are beginning to flow again. “We have resurrected a river – a miracle!” cries Josiah Ndegwa, the Factory Manager as he stands by a stream. “Our farmers are happy, as they are producing more tea after the training, and new buyers are interested in our teas since we received the certification. We have been able to sell our teas at higher prices, as buyers know the special efforts we have made on sustainability.”
The KTDA is so happy with the results of the project that it has decided to extend the FFS training methodology to every single factory in Kenya, and is putting forward more factories for certification. In partnership with the Dutch Government, Unilever and the Ethical Tea Partnership, the Rainforest Alliance has begun a major training programme in Kenya to bring these long-lasting benefits to tens of thousands more smallholder producers.
Back on the farm, Francis is happy: “Because of what I learned in the training, my tea bushes produce more tea, and I pluck better tea, which means my income has increased. I’m very pleased you’ve come to see me so that I could show you this.”
Marc Monsarrat – Manager (E. Africa & S. Asia), Sustainable Agriculture Division, Rainforest Alliance
Kenya, January 2010
There are many in the global conservation and environmental movement who are feeling the loss of Wangari Maathai and are grateful for the inspiration and determination she showed the world. Her Green Belt Movement, which she founded in 1977, planted tens of millions of trees. Her death was confirmed on the organisation’s website, informing us that she died of cancer on the evening of September 25th. Maathai was 71, and she will be greatly missed.
