Farmers have petitioned the government to implement agricultural policies that will motivate them to increase crop productivity.
They attribute the dwindling maize shortage to decreased acreage under cultivation owing to increased cost of farm inputs.
Farmers in the North Rift region are now diversifying to short term crops including sweet potatoes and millet due to maize shortage.
Farmers in the North Rift claim the importation of the maize to stabilise the rising prices of flour is a scheme to flood the local market with cheap produce ahead of the harvesting season.
The farmers have instead petitioned the government to implement agricultural policies that will motivate them to increase crop production and resolve the recurrent food insecurity and hunger crises.
“Dependence on maize imports to curb the current food shortage is a clear indicator that the government is not concerned about the welfare of farmers,” said Mr Andrew Rotich, the chairman of the Trans-Nzoia Maize and Livestock Association.
The farmers attributed the maize shortage to decreased acreage under cultivation due to increased cost of farm inputs and an unstable market for the produce.
“Apart from erratic rainfall, disease outbreaks, other factors such as sub-standard farm inputs and augmented production costs has discouraged most farmers from investing in cereal farming, which has contributed to the current maize shortage,” argued Jackson Kosgey from Moiben, Uasin Gishu County.
Maize production in Rift Valley, the country’s food basket reduced from 21 million bags to 16 million bags last season due to various factors ranging from erratic rainfall to disease outbreaks.
“We are now rallying farmers to give serious thought about diversification because we have seen alternative crops like beans and bananas fetch higher prices than maize yet they have a lower cost of production,” he said.
“What farmers require is sufficient capital to enable them to invest in modern crop production and not to sell our maize produce on credit due to unreliable market,” said Musa Barno of the Kenya National Federation of Agricultural Producers (Kenfap), Uasin Gishu branch.
Some traders in the North Rift region are now seeking diversifying to short-term crops including sweet potatoes and millet due to the maize shortage.
“We are seeing more of an influx of sweet potatoes and millet from Uganda to Kenya more than maize, which signals that locals are now relying more on alternative foods,” said Mr Dan Sapiri, a Trans-Nzoia county government’s liaison officer at Endebess.
Trans-Nzoia deputy governor, Dr Stanley Tarus, said the solution to the farmers’ woes lies in diversification and finding a reliable market for their produce since the Kenyan market is flooded.
“Diversification and sourcing of market for our produce is the only guaranteed way to ensure farmers profit from their agricultural activities,” Mr Tarus told the Business Daily in Kitale.
A spot check by the Business Daily in most retail markets in the region revealed a reduced supply of short-term and orphan crops.
Despite the government subsidy meant to reduce the cost of maize flour, consumers decried the skyrocketing cost of the commodity.
A bag of maize is selling at Sh 5,200 while a 90-kilogramme bag of sorghum is going for Sh7,000 up from Sh 6,200. A bag of finger millet costs Sh 6,700 up from Sh 5,900 while beans go for Sh 10,200 up from Sh 8,800.
The Ministry of Agriculture says that maize harvests in the North Rift, the country’s food basket, will delay for a month due to late planting of the crop.
“There were delays in the onset of long rains which deferred the planting exercise by a month, meaning that harvest will start late,” said Johnson Irungu, the director of crops.
Some of maize farmers were forced to uproot the crop and replant afresh due to uneven germination caused by erratic rainfall.
The meteorological department had long warned of poor rainfall pattern during the long period season and its subsequent threat on national food security.
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