Kenya Tea Development Agency  Kenya Tea Development Agency Holdings (KTDA) is a provider of comprehensive services to more than 565,000 small tea farmers such as agri-extension, transportation, processing, and marketing. The tea industry  in Kenya is broken down broadly into policy, production, regulatory & research and trade & promotions. The main players are the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of Agriculture, Tea Board of Kenya, Tea Research Foundation  Kenya Tea Development Agency (Holdings) Limited, Kenya Tea Growers Association, Nyayo Tea Zone Development Corporation  and East Africa Tea Trade Association. This growth was attributed to favourable weather conditions coupled with improved global demand. Tea production in Kenya started in 1903  with commercial farming starting in 1924 on colonalist-occupied farms. The 1929/30 world economic recession brought slump in the expanding tea industry as did other sectors of the economy. Due to shrinkage in the export market, the domestic market grew faster than anticipated. Competition for the domestic market was stiff and by 1931 the Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) was formed to promote the interests of all persons concerned in the cultivation of tea in Kenya. Soon after, the Associated Tea Growers of East Africa (ATGEA) was established to foster the same objectives within the three east African countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Tea growing and production was expanding elsewhere in the world. India, Ceylon (Now Sri Lanka) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) were experiencing over-production which culminated in the introduction of international tea growing expansion restriction scheme signed under the first Tea Agreement in Amsterdam in 1933. By then Kenya had planted only about 4,800 hectares under tea and was subjected to the same expansionary restrictions as the major tea growers in the world. The colonial government prohibited local natives in Kenya to grow cash crops up to 1937 when commercial maize cultivation was liberalized followed by cotton. The colonial government's major arguments were that the local natives of Kenya could not effectively control diseases on their farms and this could be a threat to the “well-cared-for” European colonialist-owned farms. Lack of farm labour was also feared including competition with the Europeans for lucrative farming business. Before Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) there was Special Crop Development Authority (SCDA). In 1960, the colonial government created SCDA to promote growing of tea by Africans under the auspices of the ministry of Agriculture. Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA) was established under a statutory legislation on 20 January 1964 under Legal Notice No. 42 Section 190 of the Agricultural Act (Cap 318 of the Laws of Kenya).