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| Archive News from Ndumberi Co-operative Coffee Improvement Project - November 2006 |
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| November, as expected, was generally a challenging
month for the Ndumberi farmers. Being the peak picking month for the main crop, farmers had to commit at least one day in a week to coffee picking. In the same month, a good number of farmers
collected compound fertiliser from the Co-op and
applied it to their coffee trees. From a series of training
sessions undertaken earlier in the year, the farmers
have learnt that a round of compound fertiliser in November is necessary to induce the flowering for the next season main crop in the months March and April 2007. |
| The rains were good, actually above most farmers' expectation, and the coffee trees continued to rapidly heal from the effects of bearing a heavy crop and some trees were still flowering for the early crop. This means that the trees are still healthy and therefore the biannual high/low production cycle effects in 2007 will be minimal. |
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| The Ndumberi farmers were blessed with a good coffee harvest
this season. Cherry production rose from 0.75 million Kg cherry in 2004 / 2005 to 1.2 million Kg in 2005 / 2006. This rise in
production can be attributed to renewed interest in coffee farming following the initiation of coffee improvement projects in the Co-op. Ndumberi Co-op was well placed to handle the large
amount of cherry received thanks to the rehabilitation work undertaken in all its Wet Mills under the kind sponsorship of FOUR SQUARE. Among the three Wet mills, Riabai has received
the highest amount of cherry standing at 475,920 Kg while Ngaita has the lowest intake of 340,218 Kg. Ndumberi Main has received 418,305 Kg Cherry. |
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The three Wet Mills are busy preparing
the harvest for sale. Most of the parchment is dry. Already, over 800 bags of parchment is sorted and bagged.
'We estimate to have bagged close to 3500 bags of parchment by December 2006'
discloses Mr Mbugua, the Co-op's Secretary Manager. |
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Mr Peter Mbugua is a man who believes that action speaks louder than words. Mr Mbugua is truly a man of few words and prefers to use figures than words. Mbugua, a married father of four, was born and brought up in Ting'ang'a by a coffee farming family. To Mbugua, and to his six siblings, life rotates around coffee. Born in1958, Mbugua was employed in the Co-op as a Secretary Manager in the year 1995. Mbugua boasts accounting and co-operative management skills acquired from the local Co-operative College. |
| Mbugua, apart from being the technical advisor and secretary to the board, is in charge of day to day running of the Co-op and all the Wet Mills. Mbugua is happy to work for Ndumberi and is an active member of Ndumberi Coffee farmers Savings and Credit Co-operative (SACCO). 'Since the co-op pays us regularly, I am able to educate my four children from my salary. Occasionally I get a loan from the SACCO to undertake small development projects' discloses Mbugua. |
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| Mr Mbugua cites low production and low coffee prices as the main challenges that often face the Co-op and his desk. Mbugua, aiming to lead by example, is currently working hard to improve yields from the family Shamba that has 750 stems of coffee. 'We hope to perform better this year, we had a good harvest and our processing has improved which I hope will translate to high quality. We hope FOUR SQUARE and Sangana Commodities (Kenya) Ltd will buy our coffee at good prices. We also look forward to putting up a basic health facility for our farmers with the help of FOUR SQUARE' states optimistic Mbugua. |
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| We provide regular newsletters on our projects in Kenya. Read recent and archive news from the Ndumberi Co-operative Coffee Improvement Project. |
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| » More archive newsletters from Ndumberi |
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