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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.