Kenya Breweries to Recruit 5,000 New Farmers to Grow Sorghum

Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL) wants to increase the number of sorghum farmers with an additional 5,000 to its contract farming program.

Through East African Maltings Limited (EAML), KBL’s contract farming programme, Mtama Ni Mali, sources 100% of raw materials locally.

As a result, it provides a source of livelihood to over 40,000 smallholder farmers drawn from Kisumu, Migori, Siaya, Homa Bay, Busia, Tharaka Nithi and Meru counties, among others.

In its last financial year, to June 2022, KBL paid out Ksh 1.2 billion to farmers under the program.

“As part of our sustainability strategy, our goal is to ensure that the business shares economic benefits with local communities by improving livelihoods,” said East African Maltings Limited (EAML) Head of Agribusiness Gerald Gacheru.

“The introduction of beer made from sorghum has provided an opportunity to improve production and welfare for sorghum farmers.”

“As a company leading the drive for sorghum commercialisation in Kenya, we are registering sorghum farmers who will grow and supply grain to our breweries,” Gacheru said.

“The local sourcing programme is a crucial business priority because it enables us to grow value together with the farmers in Kenya. We are also encouraging Persons with Disabilities not to shy away from joining the programme. In partnership with Sightsavers, we are currently working with over 140 differently abled farmers and looking to grow this number further.”

KBL uses digital growers’ management systems to eliminate paperwork and enable tracking of the growing and harvesting of sorghum to track farming activities.

The digital platform helps smallholder farmers access formal markets and improve the effectiveness of outgrower schemes. It has introduced high levels of efficiency and real-time traceability of the activities in smallholder farms down to the specific farm and boosted compliance.