The Global Coffee Platform has launched the first National Coffee Platform of Kenya, according to Global Coffee Report. The Platform is locally-drive and will be driven by stakeholders involved in the Kenyan coffee sector. The national goal is to double productivity and income of the 700,000 farmers who rely on coffee as a source of livelihood.
“This is a really exciting occasion for all coffee people in Kenya. One of the biggest hurdles in transforming any sector is that preliminary step of aligning everybody behind a shared goal and agenda,” says Annette Pensel, Executive Director, Global Coffee Platform.
This Platform will act as a knowledge center for global partners and other organizations willing to work alongside other members of the group and will address the biggest challenges facing the Kenyan coffee sector. This includes low productivity, limited access to inputs, credit and extension services, climate change, and low involvement of youth and women. These challenges have contributed to a decline in production levels to below 30 cent per of the country's potential.
Key activities include the Global Coffee Platform (GCP) and its partners supporting the Kenyan Platform. There will also be a study laying out concrete solutions to key bottlenecks and sustainability challenges among other things such as strengthening the institutional capacity to improve government legislation and policy.
