Maize taking a back seat in Rift Valley

A maize shortage looms after the abandonment of the crop by Rift Valley farmers, who have suffered heavy losses due to an attack by deadly viral disease.

And the importation of the grain from neighbouring countries is not making matters any better as it is reducing the price of whatever little is available.

Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago on Tuesday told growers to focus on horticulture if they are to better their lives.

“Time has come for us to expand our thinking. We should venture into activities which can earn us high returns in a short time as opposed to maize which can take a whole year yet one is not assured of profit,” Mr Mandago said at a farmers’ open day at Chebororwa.

He urged farmers to form cooperative societies to benefit fully from agriculture and to have a strong platform to agitate for their welfare.

PASSION FRUITS  

Farmers in the county are increasingly turning to passion fruits and vegetables to cushion themselves from losses occasioned by the outbreak of Maize Lethal Necrosis disease that damaged over 260,000 hectares of the crop valued at Sh2 billion last season.

Maize yield in Rift Valley, the country’s food basket, declined from 21 million bags to 16 million bags last year.

Agriculturalists yesterday warned of further drop as producers diversify to more lucrative sub-sectors.

“The maize sub-sector faces threat from alternative investments like horticulture and farm forestry that require less capital but with attractive returns unless the government cushions farmers from further losses,” Mr Mathew Lang’at, an agricultural officer from Nandi County said.

The region produced horticultural crops valued at Sh13.6 billion last year compared to Sh8.6 billion the previous season.