Tea is one of the main contributors to Kenyan economy. Kenya is known for her reddish, strong CTC teas suitable for milk tea. By the way, as allAfrica had reported, Tea farmers in Meru County, Kenya have opposed the introduction of plucking machines, saying machines will affect badly on the quality of green leaf and lead to reduced earnings.

A group of small scale farmers mentioned that tea plucking using machines will reduce their earnings since the leaf would not be of the required standard and would thus rob them of the quality they have enjoyed for many years. Mr. Gideon Mutwiri, a tea grower from Imenti South, mentioned that for years, Imenti Tea Factory has been leading in the quality of tea sold at the Mombasa auction, but is concerned that the use of machines would bring down the quality. “The machine is cost effective since one gadget does the work of about 20 people but for the small scale farmers, they will be to our disadvantage,” Gideon mentioned.

He further mentioned that small scale growers work with their immediate families will be hardest hit because with low volumes and lower quality, their earnings will be meagre.

“Estate farmers are the ones who will use the machines but we deliver leaf to the same factory which will affect our earnings,” he added.

Tea pluckers have also been gripped by panic following reports that the gadgets are on the way.

Mr. Joshua Nyakaki, a tea picker, said he could not imagine surviving without his job. “I came to Meru after the machines were introduced in Kericho where I was working. Now they are following me here. I don’t know where to go next,” Joshua mentioned.

However, some of them are upbeat, saying they plan to buy their own machines and take the competition “head on”.

“We will not take it lying down. We have organised ourselves in a group and plan to buy one the moment they are introduced,” said Mr. John Kinoti, one of the tea pluckers.

He said in a group of six, they would work in shifts since after plucking, there is also a need to sort the leaves at the collection centre.

“This machine is not perfect because factories have insisted on quality and demand that green leaf must first be sorted to ensure it is only a bud and two leaves that go into processing yet the machine plucks more leaves. We are the ones to do the sorting so I think we will still retain our jobs,” he said.

Payment to each factory for made tea sold at the Mombasa auction is based on quality, with those that produce higher grades fetching attractive prices.

There are several companies which have descended in the region, carrying out demonstrations on farms on how to use the plucking machines.

View Point

Harvesting is taken place through out the year in tea plantations in tropical nations like Kenya, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), South India, Indonesia etc. Tea flushes at different stages / generations can be seen in tropical tea fields. Therefore, plucking operation has to be selective. But in sub-tropical / temperate countries, the flush emerges at once during the spring (Late March / Early April) after few months of dormant period during the winter. First and second flushes are generally higher in quality, so these spring flushes are normally plucked by hand. When it comes to summer and autumn flushes, machines can be used to pluck since there is only one shoot generation on the field. Also the quality is not a major concern for later flushes.

But due to labour scarcity, even tropical nations have started to practice machine plucking by adjusting fields accordingly. Machine plucking needs skills. It minimizes the need for labour. Well, this may cut down some employment opportunities. From the other hand, the status of a machine plucker is higher compared to a manual plucker. So machine plucking can be implemented with the aim of retaining labour. Using the term machine “plucking” is also bit debatable, since it’s not a very careful selection. Anyway, let’s see how many farmers in Meru region will adopt to tea plucking machines.

View More Latest Tea News + Articles: http://www.teawithnipun.com/

References

1. Main Source: https://allafrica.com/stories/202106170055.html