[00:00.100]This is the Agriculture Report.
[00:02.850]Kenyan farmers say
[00:04.650]a British ban on the plant known as khat
[00:08.190]will seriously affect their business and economy.
[00:12.530]Exports of khat, also called "miraa"
[00:15.960]are worth big money to Kenya.
[00:18.750]The farmers have exported the plant mainly to Britain,
[00:23.090]other European countries and Somalia.
[00:26.970]Khat is growing in the colder climates of central Kenya.
[00:31.810]For years, people have been using it as a drug,
[00:36.290]biting on the leaves of the plant,
[00:39.070]can increase the heart beat
[00:41.420]and make the person feel more awake.
[00:44.560]Some Kenyan politicians and khat traders
[00:47.790]have called on the government to open talks
[00:50.890]with British officials to convince them to cancel the ban on khat.
[00:56.210]They say ending the ban would save Kenya's khat industry from collapse.
[01:03.170]Kipkorir Menjo is the director of the Kenya Farmers Association,
[01:08.990]he says the ban will affect tens of thousands of people.
[01:13.470]"The miraa industry is going to face a serious challenge
[01:17.660]because they are people in the supply chain,
[01:19.900]the farmers who are planting the crop,
[01:22.290]fellows who have been distributing,
[01:24.530]fellows who have been exporting.
[01:25.770]The whole industry is likely to collapse
[01:27.670]because this is a major market
[01:30.610]which has been earning this people good money,
[01:33.690]of course also earning the country foreign exchange."
[01:36.330]Earlier this month,
[01:37.880]British Home Secretary Theresa May banned the leafy stimulant.
[01:43.560]She warned that traders could use Britain
[01:46.640]to move khat illegally to other European countries.
[01:51.520]Jephat Muroko is the head of the Global Miraa Industry Dealers Network,
[01:58.250]he says the British's decision was made for political reasons.
[02:03.570]"To me it's a pure politics,
[02:05.320]and not only politics but also oppressive to the miraa industry traders.
[02:11.780]I think it's part of the consequences.
[02:14.880]But I wonder about our government, why it's quiet about this thing."
[02:19.520]Khat is already banned in most European countries,
[02:24.060]including France, Germany, and Netherlands.
[02:28.090]Kenyan traders exported about 20 tons of khat
[02:32.190]to the Netherlands weekly before the ban.
[02:36.230]Another 36 tons a week were sent to Britain.
[02:40.720]Kipkorir Menjo says khat farmers and traders
[02:45.200]need to start speaking up, so that Britain can lift the ban.
[02:50.020]If their efforts fail, he says,
[02:53.500]they will have to start planting other crops to earn money.
[02:58.090]"If there will be no headway then they will have to think for other options,
[03:01.970]but I think for now I don't want to conclude that nobody will listen to them.
[03:05.750]Hopefully they will get some way out,
[03:08.190]but if it's not possible they will have to think
[03:10.630]some other ways of getting their livelihood."
[03:13.080]As the farmers and traders study the latest development from Europe,
[03:17.740]another battle awaits them inside Kenya:
[03:21.790]The National Authority for the Campaign against Alcohol and Drug Abuse
[03:27.160]is urging the government to list khat as an illegal drug.
[03:32.980]And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English.