Call for districts to set up buying points for coffee, cocoa

AGRICULTURE and Livestock Minister John Simon has called on districts to set up buying points for coffee, cocoa and other commodities for farmers.
Simon said this would boost the Government’s agenda to support farmers. “My call to the districts is to get involved in setting up the buying points,” he said.
“At the department, we can only do what we can, but the districts must take ownership because the people are their people.
“They have district service improvement programme funds there, they’ve got the economic sector funding there, they should assist the people.
“If they can do this, it will help the districts and make it much easier for us.” Simon said one of the initiatives to be introduced to farmers in places such as Goilala, Central, was to introduce different methods of farming.
“With those big mountains, they could use donkeys to carry coffee,” he said. “Goilala wouldn’t be a bad place to introduce donkeys and they could carry coffee for them up those fertile mountains where they can produce specialty coffee.
“You can get prices close to US$20 (K70.12) per kilo.”