Historical Background
Cotton research started at Wanguru field station  in 1960 as part of the National Agricultural Laboratories to cater for general field investigations but was later abandoned after 5 years. The cotton research section of the National Agricultural Laboratories was transferred to Mwea Tebere in 1961 marking the beginning of Tebere Cotton Research Station (TCRS). In 1978 upland rice research was introduced hence leading to change of the name to Mwea Tebere Agricultural Research Station (MTARS) under the Scientific Research Division of the Ministry of Agriculture. Sunflower Research was subsequently introduced in 1980 and Kenaf and Jute Research in 1983. The name changed again in 1986 to the National Fibre Research Centre (NFRC) when Kenya agricultural Research Institute (KARI) took over the management of the agricultural research. The current name of the centre is KARI - Mwea.
The centre has an establishment of 41members of staff, out of which 10 are technical support staff, 28 are non-technical support staff and 9 are research scientist with 2 PhD, 4MSc  and 2 BSc holders.

Our Mandate
KARI- Mwea has the mandate to formulate, coordinate and implement natural fibre research programme. The main natural fibres researched on include cotton, sisal, kenaf, jute and silk worm products. Recently the mandate was expanded to include rice research.  Major areas of rice and natural fibre research include, breeding, agronomy and crop health. The centre is responsible for implementing components of these programmes in the regions East of the Rift valley, Central, Eastern and the Coast province, while KARI: - Kibos is responsible for the same components West of the Rift valley.