This archive report was first published on 13 July 2021.
On July 13, 2021, the government announced plans to construct a KSh100 million cotton ginnery in Lamu County, aiming to revive the country's struggling cotton farming industry.
Lamu County Governor Fahim Twaha revealed that the ginnery will be established in the Sinambio area and will have a capacity to process 20,000 metric tonnes of cotton fibre annually.
Cotton farming in Kenya has been in decline since the 1990s, with the country's production plummeting from over 38,000 metric tonnes in 1990 to a mere 3,495 metric tonnes last year.
Despite this, Lamu remains one of the largest cotton-growing counties in Kenya, with an estimated 3,000 metric tonnes of cotton produced annually.
As part of the government's Vision 2030 project, the county government has procured 4.5 metric tonnes of cotton seeds to be distributed to over 10,000 cotton farmers in the county.
