Concern as North Rift cereal farms give way to real estate

Agriculture experts have warned of impending food insecurity as cereal farmers in the North Rift region, the country’s bread basket, turn to real estate driven by attractive returns from the sector.

Most farmers neighbouring urban areas are converting agricultural land into commercial spaces, resulting in declining food production.

According to annual crop development report by the Ministry of Agriculture, acreage under crop production in areas such as Eldoret, Kitale, Kapsabet and major trading centres has been declining due to change of land use.

“Change of land use is posing a serious threat to food security in parts of Rift Valley as most farmers find it profitable to convert their agricultural land to either settlement or commercial,” stated the report.

According to the report, Rift Valley province produced about 18.6 million bags of maize last year against a target of 24 million bags. Change of land user has been identified as one of the factors that contributed to decline in production.

Land fragmentation leading to agriculturally uneconomical units and environmental degradation as well as declining soil fertility are other factors that have been cited as causes of the low yields.

The region however had a surplus of 7.7 million bags of maize last year due to favourable weather conditions that led to increased crop production.

“Unaffordable credit sources and inadequate facilities coupled with high incidents of pests and diseases are contributing to low yields,” said the report.

Inaccessibility to adequate farm inputs by some farmers due to low incomes resulted in deficit of beans stock in the region last season.

It produced 622,325 bags of beans last year against an annual consumption of about 1.7 million bags.