Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has confirmed that he has scheduled a meeting with Avocado farmers’ representatives to iron out issues in the sector.
The meeting comes after stakeholders and farmers raised concerns over a flurry of issues, including the newly proposed Farm Produce Tax.
Addressing a congregation at ACK St Francis Ciamanda Church in Runyenjes, Embu County on Sunday, Gachagua revealed that the meeting had been scheduled for Tuesday, March 12.
He noted that the meeting will provide a comprehensive engagement on issues affecting the sub-sector as well as improve the fortunes of farmers.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua (left) and his wife Pastor Dorcas Rigathi (in red) at a coffee plantation on April 8, 2023
DPPS
“I have convened a meeting between Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture (Mithika Linturi) and officials of avocado farmers to address the issues affecting the farmers and find the way forward,” Gachagua told the congregation.
He further noted that the meeting was in response to the fruit farmers’ call for interventions for better income and expansion of the global market for Kenyan produce.
According to the DP, the agricultural reforms are being carried out across several sectors including avocado, coffee, tea, dairy, macadamia, muguka and horticulture.
Earlier, farmers across the board had lamented the proposed Farm Produce Tax as a factor likely to contribute to diminishing their returns.
A section of lawmakers had insisted that they would not support the new tax noting that it will affect the farmers, most of whom rely on Agriculture to make ends meet.
“As an MP, I can tell there is a problem with this proposal. We are the aggregators; the aggregators should be the farmers. These avocado taxes should be imposed on the consumers. The tax should be carried in by the exporter,” Gatanga MP Edward Muriu stated.
As the storm unfolded, Gachagua also promised to push the State to look into the proposed tax.
Molo MP Kuria Kimani, who doubles as the chair of the Finance Committee in the National Assembly, however, defended the tax noting that it would enable the farmers to register on the Electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS), giving them a chance to transact directly with buyers.
Kimani explained that brokers had learned of the importance of eTIMS and bought the produce from farmers at cheaper prices before selling it to multinationals at a premium.
“If you are selling your avocados to (a brand) and it has to file their taxes to show their expenses where they spend their money on for them to be allowed to be deductable from their corporate tax, they have to be generated from eTIMS,” he explained.
“This avenue is just providing a sort of a receipt system. In the absence of it, you will have brokers register on eTIMS, buy the produce from farmers at whatever price they want, and sell them to (the brands) and this is what we are trying to avoid.”
Molo Member of Parliament Francis Kuria Kimani at his Home.
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