Coffee Cooperative societies in Kericho County have been advised to diversify their production activities so as to cushion them in hard times
The Kericho County Commissioner of Cooperatives Mr. Leonard Otii said they were encouraging coffee Cooperative societies and others to embrace diversification of activities so as to enable generation of income if one of the activities fails.
“We urge our coffee Cooperatives and marketing societies to look into ways of diversifying into other fields. One of the fields that is proving to be profitable is the dairy sector where the societies can generate income to pay workers as they wait for sale of coffee,” he observed.
The commissioner who was speaking to Sacco Review in his office said they should put more emphasis on the coffee marketing societies since the crop is harvested once a year and yet there are employees who need to be paid on a monthly basis.
“How can the societies survive? From our experience here in Kericho County we have noticed that many of the societies who diversify to the dairy sector survive,” he said.
He gave an example of the Ainamoi Farmers’ Cooperative Society which based in Ainamoi Sub County which he noted that they started small and were now receiving around 1,350 litres of milk from farmers, which they are also able to sell through another well-established milk cooperative while the remaining milk is sold locally.
The commissioner urged other marketing cooperatives to urgently venture into other lucrative activities like selling farm products and agro chemicals to farmers to sustain their income.
Commissioner of Cooperatives David Obonyo had also urged societies to embrace the project so as to be a cushion during tough economic times like what happened during the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
By Benedict Ngetich
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