1.During the peak years, a tree of Kenyan coffee produced 30 kilograms of coffee cherry a year. Today the yield is only 2kg. The Coffee Berry Disease and Leaf Rust cut production by as much as 80 per cent.
2.Under the new proposal 2016, US$1 million bank guarantee demanded by the Coffee Directorate will be scrapped, giving farmers a direct avenue to sell their coffee at Nairobi Coffee Exchange
3.Historically, Kenya cultivated the Scotts Laboratory varieties (SL-28 and SL-34) of the Bourbon cultivar of Arabica coffee. In 1985, the Ruiru Coffee Research Station introduced the Ruiru 11 variety, which while having improved resistance to Coffee Berry Disease and Leaf Rust disease, had a less attractive taste.
4.In response to these concerns, the Coffee Research Station created the Batian variety in 2010 which while also resistant, produces a more attractive taste at the cupping stage
5.Fortunately, coffee production is easy to fix: most of the farmers didn’t uproot their crop; they merely cut it and planted other things. Improved varieties developed by the Coffee Research Institute (CRI) can be grafted on to the stumps and with proper feeding, restore full production in about two years