Kenya's Smallholder Tea Development Program

In 1959, the Colonial Government of Kenya set up a Working Party to recommend suitable measures to promote the development of smallholder tea cultivation in the country. In Kenya, the highlands on the eastern and western sides of the "Rift Valley" in the central part of the country were found to be well suited for tea groining. The smallholder tea project in Kenya which International Development Association helped to finance not only had a very high rate of economic return, but also allowed a large number of subsistence farmers to participate in the market economy. The view of the management of Kenya Tea Development Authority from the outset was that the committees were purely advisory to the Authority. In 1959, Kenyan teas were 14 per cent below the London average price; in 1966 they surpassed the average, and in 1971 were the world&s;s highest.