IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

IIARD International Journal of Economics and Business Management (IJEBM )

E-ISSN 2489-0065
P-ISSN 2695-186X
VOL. 2 NO. 1 2016

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THE INFLUENCE OF MECHANICAL PLUCKING MACHINES ON EMPLOYEES INCOME IN SOTIK TEA COMPANIES LIMITED, BURETI DISTRICT, KENYA

George Okoth Omuga, Dr. Adijah Olubandwa, Prof. Dolphine Odero Wanga

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Abstract

Tea industry is a major foreign exchange earner for the Kenyan economy. Kenya is the third largest producer of black tea in the world after China and India. Tea has put Kenya on the world map with over fifty countries importing Kenyan tea. The country contributes 10% of the total global tea production, commands a remarkable 27%of the global tea exports hence the global export leader. Besides providing foreign exchange, the tea industry supports close to 3 million Kenyans directly and indirectly. It forms one of the key pillars in the Agricultural sector, contributing 14% of the Agricultural GDP and 4% of the Gross Domestic Product. Tea plucking is one of the major operations in tea production and constitutes 60-70% of production cost. Due to large cost component and continued declines in the long term prices of tea, companies have opted to reduce costs through the introduction of tea plucking machines. This study undertook to find out the extent to which the adoption of the plucking machines had affected employees’ income in Sotik Tea Company Limited, Bureti District Kenya. The study analyzed the influence the use of mechanical tea harvesters had on employees income among the over 600 employees who were involved in both hand plucking and machine plucking in the company. Chi-square test and univariate analysis of variance were used to test the relationship between machine plucking and employees income at a p value of 0.05. From the results, it was established that the adoption of the mechanical plucking machines had no statistically significant effect on employees’ income in Sotik Tea Company as the incomes from the machine pluckers and the hand pluckers were comparable.There is need for the tea companies to embrace and adopt mechanical tea harvesting as employees income was not significantly affected by the use of mechanical tea harvesters and for the sustainability of the tea sector due to the ever escalating cost of hand plucking

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