What problem or need is the project addressing?
Tea is Kenya’s third largest foreign exchange earner. The sector is dominated by over 620,000 smallholder tea farmers who contribute 60% of its output. However their livelihoods are under threat due to decreasing land holdings, high population growth, fluctuating global tea prices and climate change.
The Government recognises the need for change and has taken steps to rectify the situation by reforming the Kenyan Tea Act, giving farmers and tea factories greater control over their livelihoods. The new legislation came into effect in April 2009 but these changes are proving difficult to implement against inertia in the sector and lack of skills and knowledge among tea factory management and tea farmers.
What is the project doing?
The project aims to empower 30,000 smallholder tea farmers to achieve their social and economic rights under the revised Kenyan Tea Act.
Working with five tea factories across three rural districts, the project will tackle the problem by:
- Raising awareness of farmer social and economic rights among key stakeholders, including government and Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) officials, tea factory management and directors, and farmers themselves.
- Building the capacity of smallholder tea farmers to access these rights. This will include supporting farmers to form groups and associations so they can act collectively. Farmer groups will also be assisted to meet their members’ wider needs for information, services and inputs; enabling farmers to improve their livelihoods more effectively and at a lower cost.
- Building the capacity of tea factory management committees to deliver farmers’ social and economic rights. Factory management committees will be supported to improve the delivery of services to smallholder farmers.
- Encouraging better access to markets and services. Farmer groups will be supported to identify additional income generation opportunities, for example planting other cash crops alongside tea. We will also ensure the supply of appropriate services by training local service providers in areas such as horticulture, beekeeping, quality control, bookkeeping, contract negotiation, accessing credit and use of fertilisers, pesticides and seed variants.
What impact has the project had?
The project has only just started so it is too early to assess impact. We expect it to directly benefit 30,000 smallholder tea farmers in central Kenya. With an average household size of six, the project will also benefit up to 180,000 family members currently living below the poverty line. We expect farmer incomes to increase by approximately 20%, which will enable them to make significant improvements to their standard of living.
Our local partner
We are delivering the project in partnership with Christian Partners Development Agency (CPDA), a non-profit Kenyan organisation whose vision is a world in which communities are empowered to take charge of their own development and destiny. CPDA has widespread experience of community mobilisation and the Kenyan tea sector.
How is this project funded?
A Fair Cup is funded by a grant from the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID).
