Download Summary: The Fair Cup project is working with Kenyan smallholder

Summary:
The Fair Cup project is working with Kenyan smallholder tea farmers, helping them to be
aware and take full advantage of their rights. We’ve worked hard to make this a reality and
here are some of the incredible things achieved so far.
 Smallholder farmer representatives have been trained in leadership and
management skills to better serve and represent their communities.
 Smallholder farmers have diversified their income sources so they aren’t solely
reliant on tea for their livelihoods.
 Smallholder farmers have been trained in rights awareness – the key target of this
project!
Behind each smallholder farmer is a family earning more income, a farmer with new-found
confidence or a community that is now working together to improve their lives. Over
130,000 people are benefiting from this project.
This project is generously supported by the UK Government’s Department for International
Development and Comic Relief, as well grant-making trusts and individuals.
Background:
Tea is Kenya’s third largest foreign exchange earner. The sector is dominated by over
350,000 smallholder tea farmers who contribute 60% of its output. However their
livelihoods are under threat due to the way the tea industry is structured and managed. It
is difficult for smallholder farmers to make their voices and needs heard, and more
powerful players in the sector are benefitting at their expense.
Currently, smallholder tea farmers are taken advantage of by powerful players in the
Kenyan tea sector and are struggling to make ends meet. The project is helping them to
understand and claim their rights under new Kenyan tea legislation, and to get the best
possible yields from their small plots of land.
The Government of Kenya recognises the need for change and has therefore reformed the
Kenyan Tea Act, giving farmers and tea factories greater control over their livelihoods. The
new legislation came into effect in April 2009 but changes are proving difficult to implement
because of inertia in the sector, vested interests and lack of skills and knowledge among
tea factory management and tea farmers.
The Project:
Traidcraft Exchange is delivering A Fair Cup in partnership with Christian Partners
Development Agency (CPDA), a non-profit Kenyan organisation with considerable local
knowledge and experience of rights-based community mobilisation. Working with five tea
factories across three rural districts, the project is:
 Raising awareness of farmer rights among key stakeholders, including government and
Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) officials, tea factory management and
directors, and farmers themselves.
 Building the capacity of smallholder tea farmers to demand their rights. Farmers will be
supported to form groups and associations so they can act collectively and speak with
a common (stronger) voice. They will be trained in lobbying and advocacy skills, and
supported in lobbying for implementation of the revised Tea Act, and in meeting their
members’ wider needs for information, services and inputs. These interventions will
enable farmers to improve their livelihoods more effectively and at a lower cost.
 Building the capacity of tea factory management committees to deliver farmer rights.
Factory management committees will be supported to improve governance and
accountability, and their capacity will be built to re-negotiate existing contracts and
identify and gain contracts with new buyers.
 Encouraging better access to markets and services. Farmer groups are being
supported to develop additional income generation activities, including beekeeping and
farming of alternative cash crops alongside tea. In order to ensure the sustainability of
this small, but important, element of the project, we are also working to ensure the
longer term availability of support services by training local service providers in
relevant areas, including horticulture, beekeeping, quality control, bookkeeping,
contract negotiation, accessing credit and use of fertilisers, pesticides and seed
variants.
The Benefits:
Your support is helping thousands of Kenyan tea farmers to achieve a brighter future for
themselves and their families. The project will directly benefit 30,000 smallholder tea
farming families from Muranga, Nyeri and Embu districts in central Kenya. This will benefit
over 130,000 people.
We expect farmer incomes to increase by about 20%, enabling them to make significant
improvements to their standard of living. They will also gain improved control over their
livelihoods, and greater farmer representation in tea factories, and nationally.
The project is also helping us to illustrate the benefits of diversification which might be
adopted in other areas of Kenya and beyond, replicating the benefits to even greater
numbers of the poor.