By Dan Bolton
In February, Kenya's High Court ruled that labor unions cannot prevent tea planters from mechanizing tea harvesting despite the likelihood of lost jobs. The decision affirms an appeals court ruling that overturned a lower court’s finding dating to 2010. The finding makes it clear that Unilever Kenya, Ltd. “has a right to mechanize and adopt technology in its operation.”
Multinationals continued to introduce tea plucking and mechanical pruning equipment mainly for economic benefits despite union opposition. Mechanization in Kenya’s agricultural sector is low despite favorable terrain and year-round harvests.
Plucking machines operated by a single worker harvest the equivalent of what 20 tea pickers can pluck in a day. Workers are paid Sh15.50 ($0.14) per kilo for green leaf. Mechanization lowers this expense to Sh4 ($0.04) per kilo. Plantation owners say they are sensitive to labor concerns. They acknowledge the reduction in the number of workers employed but say they are doing so by attrition.
Striking workers cost producers Sh300 million ($2.7 million) last year, according to plantation owners. The five largest tea firms in the Rift Valley continued to mechanize during the lengthy court battle. Finlay, Unilever, Kepkebe, Sotik Tea, Williamson Tea, and the Eastern Produce Tea Company of Kenya (EPCK) continue to face fierce resistance by the Kenya Plantation Agriculture Workers Union (KPAWU).
Labor union national organizing secretary Henry Omasire told the Business Daily that the introduction of tea plucking equipment will lead to the loss of 50,000 jobs. According to Omasire, more than 10,000 tea workers have been sacked to cut costs in Nandi, Kericho, Bomet, and Nyamira counties. The Nandi County Assembly last year instituted levies to discourage the use of equipment that replaces casual workers.
Kenya Tea Growers Association chief executive Apollo Kiarii explained job losses are due to attrition. “No worker has been rendered redundant by tea factories due to the mechanization of tea harvesting. Companies are not replacing workers who voluntarily resign, die, or are sacked due to misconduct,” Kiarii told the Business Daily.
“We need to accept that the world is moving towards agricultural mechanization to create efficiency and better terms for workers,” says Kiarii. A tea plucker takes home Sh532 ($4.85) per day by plucking an average of 40 kilograms while a machine can do 150 kilograms per day,” Kiarii said.
Mechanization is essential, according to Pascal Kaumbutho, managing director, Agrimech Africa Ltd. In Africa, women smallholders grow 70% of the continent’s food, but with a population expected to double by 2050, food output must increase, he explains. More than half of the productive agricultural land in Kenya sits idle.
Kaumbutho said that “there are only two tractors for every 2,500 acres” in Kenya. Without mechanization, he predicts "food security will soon depend on expensive food imports.” There is an average of 128 tractors per square kilometer in India, and in Brazil, the average is 116. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa average 1.3 tractors per square kilometer, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Africa overall has fewer than two tractors per 1,000 hectares of cropland.
FAO notes that mechanization is often difficult due to terrain and the small family farms that average .33 hectares globally. Most of the world’s tea fields are located on steep slopes of mountains. Kenya is an exception. There are currently 160,000 hectares under tea, producing 350,000 metric tons of tea. Leaves harvested in flatlands are used mostly in tea bags and to make tea powder rather than traditional tea. Harvesting equipment is priced under $1,000 per unit, but mechanization requires developed footpaths, fuel, and skilled mechanics.