For many years, firewood has powered the boilers used to dry tea in our factories. PHOTO/UGC.
By CHEGE KIRUNDI
As chairman of the Kenya Tea Improvement Company (KTDA), I’ve had the privilege of overseeing Kenya’s tea trade, one of many nation’s most significant financial pillars and a world model synonymous with high quality.
But, as stewards of this sector, we should now confront a tough reality: our present reliance on firewood-powered boilers is environmentally unsustainable and economically shortsighted. It’s time for KTDA to take decisive motion by decommissioning these outdated techniques and transitioning to renewable power options.
For many years, firewood has powered the boilers used to dry tea in our factories. This methodology was as soon as viable, however we now face the pressing realities of local weather change, forest degradation, and dwindling pure assets.
Our continued dependence on firewood has change into a serious driver of deforestation, resulting in cascading results on biodiversity, water assets, and local weather resilience, points that immediately threaten the way forward for tea farming in Kenya.
Present mitigation measures, comparable to reforestation and tree planting in woodlots, whereas commendable, fall in need of countering the harm. The speed at which timber are felled for gas far outpaces our capability to replenish them. If this development continues, the delicate ecosystems that help our tea trade will likely be additional compromised.
Kenya’s forest cowl has steadily declined from about 10 % in 1964 to round six % as we speak. Alarmingly, between 1990 and 2010 alone, the nation misplaced roughly 12,050 hectares of forest every year. Projections recommend that if unchecked, this might fall beneath 3% within the close to future. Such loss doesn’t merely have an effect on timber; it threatens water cycles, wildlife habitats, soil integrity, and the financial survival of farming communities.
Our main tea-growing areas such because the Aberdares, Mau Forest Complicated, Mount Kenya, and Mount Elgon, are additionally key water towers. These forests have skilled intensive degradation over the previous 20 years.
Between 2000 and 2010, deforestation in these areas lowered water availability by an estimated 62 million cubic metres. For a crop like tea, which requires constant rainfall and regular water provide, this poses a severe danger.
Kenya’s forest cowl has steadily declined from about 10 % in 1964 to round six % as we speak. PHOTO/KTDA
Moreover, firewood harvesting causes oblique however vital environmental hurt. Poorly regulated logging practices disrupt ecosystems, trigger soil erosion, and contribute to habitat loss. Even when wooden is sourced from plantations, inefficient boilers devour extreme quantities of gas, releasing avoidable greenhouse gasoline emissions.
Though firewood is usually deemed carbon-neutral if sustainably sourced, Kenya’s present deforestation fee discredits that notion. The carbon launched by means of combustion, coupled with the destruction of carbon sinks, exacerbates international warming—paradoxically affecting the identical microclimates the place tea thrives.
This brings us to the vital query: What viable options exist for KTDA’s power wants?
Renewable bio-fuels provide a transparent and sustainable path ahead. These embody bio-ethanol, bio-butanol, bio-diesel, algal bio-fuel, inexperienced diesel, and biogas. Every of those choices may be regionally produced, lowering reliance on imports and making a round economic system inside rural communities.
Transitioning to biofuel-powered boilers is not only an environmental necessity; it makes financial sense. These techniques are extra energy-efficient, result in long-term operational financial savings, and assist factories keep away from escalating penalties related to environmental non-compliance. Investing in renewable infrastructure might additionally stimulate inexperienced job creation and spur innovation throughout Kenya’s agriculture and power sectors.
A phased transition plan ought to prioritise the set up of high-efficiency boilers suitable with biofuels and discover hybrid fashions that incorporate photo voltaic or geothermal power. Whereas the upfront prices could also be vital, the long-term financial savings in gas expenditure, upkeep, and environmental impression will far outweigh these preliminary investments.
This shift would additionally align KTDA with Kenya’s broader environmental commitments beneath the Paris Settlement, particularly the Nationally Decided Contributions (NDCs), which goal enhanced forest cowl and emission reductions. As one of many largest industrial gamers within the nation’s agriculture sector, KTDA is uniquely positioned to reveal how sustainability and profitability can go hand in hand.
Importantly, our smallholder farmers should be a part of this transition. Selling climate-smart agricultural practices; comparable to agroforestry, mulching, and contour planting can enhance resilience and create an alternate supply of renewable biomass that doesn’t encroach on indigenous forests. Agro-forestry, particularly, enriches soil well being, supplies shade for tea bushes, and gives a sustainable supply of fuel-wood when managed correctly.
The dimensions of environmental degradation linked to forest loss in Kenya is staggering. PHOTO/KTDA.
The dimensions of environmental degradation linked to forest loss in Kenya is staggering. Between 2001 and 2020, Kenya misplaced roughly 361,000 hectares of tree cowl, leading to estimated emissions of 176 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. In 2020 alone, 17,200 hectares of forest had been destroyed, releasing over 7.6 million tonnes of CO2.
These emissions contribute on to the local weather volatility we’re already experiencing—unpredictable rainfall, extended droughts, and erratic temperature shifts. For farmers already contending with rising enter prices and market pressures, local weather shocks are more and more undermining productiveness and livelihoods.
KTDA has each a accountability and a chance to steer the change. By decommissioning firewood boilers and embracing renewable power options, we are able to strengthen our international model as an environmentally accountable tea producer. This transformation will even bolster our competitiveness in worldwide markets the place sustainability requirements are quick turning into non-negotiable.
The time to behave is now. The continued use of firewood isn’t solely environmentally damaging but additionally economically and operationally outdated. Transitioning to renewable power sources, significantly biofuels; gives a future-proof resolution that aligns with international local weather targets and secures the long-term viability of Kenya’s tea trade.
Change won’t be simple. It requires a unified dedication from KTDA administration, authorities companions, growth businesses, and farmers. It would demand technical capacity-building, financing fashions for manufacturing facility upgrades, and coverage incentives to make clear power adoption viable. However the rewards; environmental resilience, financial stability, and international credibility, are nicely well worth the effort.
Allow us to not wait till our forests vanish or our water towers run dry. KTDA should take daring steps now to retire firewood boilers and usher in a brand new period of renewable energy-powered tea manufacturing.
In doing so, we safeguard our surroundings, uplift our farmers, and defend the way forward for Kenya’s tea trade for generations to come back.
The author is the Chairman of the Kenya Tea Improvement Company (KTDA).
