Tea farming is one of the most significant agricultural activities in Kenya, contributing significantly to the country’s economy.
The venture supports millions of small-scale farmers and provides employment opportunities in rural areas.
Joel Muthomi’s decision to undertake the venture 12 years ago has proved to be the best ever as he no longer lacks his family’s needs as was the case when he was relying on a monthly salary from his primary school cooking job.
The farmer, who hails from Igembe in Meru County, says he grew up in a family that lived off subsistence farming.
He envied one of their neighbors, who owned large tea bushes that attracted buyers from as far as Nyandarua. This inspired him to try the venture in the future, a dream that came true.
”I grew up working on my neighbor’s tea farm, plucking, weeding the tea bushes, applying fertilizer, and delivering tea to the tea collection center. Seeing how successful the neighbor was attracted me into the farming, and decided that I would try it in the future,’’ he said.
Today, he owns approximately 4,000 fully-grown tea bushes, which produce an average of 460 Kilograms of green tea leaves monthly.
Muthomi sells part of his produce to brokers with most of it supplied to the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA).
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He notes that profits from the trade have enabled him to diversify into dairy farming, poultry, and tomato farming.
The farmer credits the success of his business to hard work, engaging professionals, good saving culture, and enough funding.
Being a member of Co-op Bank, Muthomi says he has over the years been able to access credit to scale his business.
”Co-op bank has so many agricultural loan products tailored towards giving farmers convenience and value for their hard labor as they strive to succeed on a daily basis. Personally I’m a beneficiary of the bank’s  Tegemeo Tea Loan product that targets tea farmers,’’ Muthomi explained.
Bizna Kenya reached out to Co-op Bank Kenya to learn about the financing options it offers to farmers.
Among the products the lender has for farmers include Dairy loan, Tegemeo Tea Loan, Coffee Loan, Horticulture & Floriculture Loan, Cotton Loan and Cereal Farmers Loan among others.
”At Co-operative Bank we believe that agriculture is essential for Kenya’s economic growth. That is why we provide various financing options that support farmers and other agriculture value chain players,’’ the lender stated.
”Our Agricultural sector solutions will support inputs, production, storage, processing, value addition and marketing of goods,’’ it added.
Farmer seeking to expand their tea farms like Muthomi can apply for the Tegemo Tea loan. The product is designed to enable farmers to purchase farm inputs, tea picking, develop the farm and finance household needs.
To be eligible, one must be a small-scale farmer who owns tea farms and supplies their produce to various tea factories (KTDA & Non-KTDA Factories).
Other requirements include a dully completed application form, a Co-op Bank account (to receive and pay back the loan), and tea proceeds payments for one month received in the account.
The minimum loan offered under this product is 5000 shillings, while the maximum is 2,000,000 shillings.
For more details on these cheap loans, visit the nearest Co-op Bank branch or give Co-op Bank a call via 0711049739 or 0711049811.
