Murang’a in Sh100m subsidy scheme for horticulture farmers

Murang’a County is setting up a Sh100 million subsidy programme for small-scale horticulture farmers.

Governor Mwangi wa Iria said the money will go towards restructuring “the dysfunctional value chain in the sector to give rise to a structured path from production to the market.”

To maximise returns, the money will be used in sinking 50 wells in all of the seven sub-counties, buying improved seeds, offering farmers subsidised fertiliser and establishing 20 main collection centres.

Mr Wa Iria told the Business Daily that the county has about 50,000 small-scale horticulture farmers who rely on seasonal streams and shallow wells for irrigation.

“We intend to roll out this programme in December and by April 2017, we will evaluate our achievement based on real results.

‘‘We anticipate more producers, who currently are dormant owing to lack of capital and disillusionment, to join the programme,” he said.

He said that active producers, mainly unskilled youths, eke out a living in an imperfect market driven by middlemen.

“The prevailing situation in the sector is that of exploitation. The middlemen halve market prices and sell to the other market at obscene profits.
‘‘The producer is left poor despite investing valuable labour and costs in production,” he said.

Mr Wa Iria said the gross annual income from the sector is Sh1.5 billion, adding that it can fetch as high as Sh10 billion. Of the Sh1.5 billion, the cost of production is Sh600 million leaving producers struggling to make ends meet.

Severe droughts

The cost of production accrues from land rent, purchase of herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers as well as recruitment of labour during land preparation, planting, manual irrigation, harvesting and transport to the market.

During severe droughts, the producers lack water to irrigate crop and more losses arise from crop failure. The county will now buy fuel-driven pumps for farmers.

“This is a very awkward way of living and though there is money in it there is no evidence that producers will ever break the vicious cycle of poverty,” he said.

He believes the project can only be implemented successfully if farmers form producer groups.

“The good thing about this sector is that farmers are producing in a back-to-back format. It is only that they do not belong to registered producer groups,” he said.

County Agriculture chief executive Albert Mwaniki said that the programme of grouping farmers has commenced.

He said that the county was implementing the project in partnership with Murata Sacco and Unaitas, “which have developed financial products to fund agribusiness enterprises”.