By Bisola Adeyemo
The Youth Enterprise Development Fund, in Kenya, has vowed to continue transforming the lives of Kenyan youth groups by providing funds to generate more revenue through coffee plantations.
Many counties in Kenya have benefited from the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, including Sailo Youth Group in Kipkelion East, Kericho County.
Kericho County is predominantly a tea-growing zone but areas of Kipkelion East Sub-County, which is on the south-western part of the county, are known for coffee farming, thanks to its black cotton soil.
Speaking to KNA from Sailo village, the Youth Group chair Mr. Charles Tumm disclosed that the bull fattening and cereals business was a success and they managed to repay their loan and qualified for more funds.
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“After we completed to repay our first loan which had a very low loan interest rate of 6 percent annually, we were confident enough to borrow more since we had a plan to venture into coffee farming,” said Mr. Tumm.
The Youth group which is based in Chepcholiet Sub-Location within the escapements of Kipkelion East Sub-County managed to secure a second loan of Sh.200,000 courtesy of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and immediately started coffee farming from which they started reaping benefits after three years.
“We first leased some land but after our first harvest, we had made enough money to purchase that same one and half acre land which was a great milestone for us as a group.” Mr. Tumm said.
“We currently own 4 acres of land as a group. We have however planted coffee on three acres of land and all our group members also own their individual land. Recently we bought over 10,000 seedlings of coffee and distributed to the group members to plant on their lands,” Mr. Tumm added.
“We used to take our coffee to Kapchawir factory which is far from this area but due to increase in production of our coffee, the factory decided to open a branch in our village to make transportation easy,” pointed out Mr. Tumm.
“We are better managing the common challenges most coffee farmer grapples with by employing better practices to maintain good standards of the berries. Our venture into coffee farming in this village has also created job opportunities since we now have over 20 casual laborers in our farms who cultivate the coffee and come in handy during harvesting season,” said Mr. Tumm.
