Thousands quit pyrethrum farming as fortunes dwindle

A labourer harvesting pyrethrum at a farm in Bahati, Nakuru North on February 12, 2016. PHOTO |SULEIMAN MBATIAH

What you need to know:

  • Farmers interviewed paint a picture of disillusionment due to lack of payments for deliveries coupled with cartels that paralyse the sub-sector.
  • The number of farmers growing pyrethrum has sharply dropped from about 300,000 in the 1980s to around 5,000 currently cutting production from 17,500 to 700 metric tonnes per year.
  • In the 1980s, pyrethrum was the sixth foreign exchange earner in Kenya after tea, horticulture, tourism, coffee and sisal.
  • The farmers blame Pyrethrum Board of Kenya for woes frustrating the sub-sector and want an audit of the institution conducted to enable the prosecution of those freezing it.

Pyrethrum farmers in Nakuru and Nyandarua counties recall with nostalgia days when the crop was their economic mainstay.

However, the good old days are long gone as pyrethrum fortunes have clearly changed. A visit to areas that grew the crop in the two counties shows farmers have abandoned it.

The number of farmers who grew pyrethrum has sharply dropped from about 300,000 in the 1980s to around 5,000 currently.

Farmers the Nation interviewed paint a picture of disillusionment that set in due to lack of payments for deliveries coupled with cartels that paralysed the sub-sector.

Ms Sarah Wathakwu, a spokesperson of pyrethrum farmers in Molo, says the growers uprooted the pyrethrum and planted other crops to sustain their livelihoods.

“I began growing pyrethrum in 1979. However, trouble started in 1992 after farmers failed to get their bonuses. Cartels also set in and began diverting farmers’ money. This forced most of us to switch to cabbage and potato farming,” Ms Wathakwu said when Nation caught up with her at her home.

She blames the woes facing the sub-sector to mismanagement.

YET TO PAID

“Farmers are yet to be paid for produce they delivered to Pyrethrum Board of Kenya (PBK) in 2012 and 2013,” she says.

She explains that pyrethrum farming was the main source of income for most farmers in Molo and Kuresoi where the crop was grown on large scale because of the favourable cold weather.

Other areas where the crop was grown are, Bahati, Subukia, Eburru, Timboroa, Keringet, Naivasha (in Nakuru) as well as Oljororok and Mawingu in Nyandarua.

Mr John Kimani, a one-time director with the PBK notes that in the 1980s, Kenya was the world’s largest producer of pyrethrum with 17,500 metric tonnes of dried pyrethrum flowers per year. “But this has now gone down to less than 700 metric tonnes,” regrets Mr Kimani.

He notes in the 1980s, pyrethrum was the sixth foreign exchange earner in Kenya after tea, horticulture, tourism, coffee and sisal.

Mr Kimani says Nakuru and Nyandarua counties have the capacity to produce over 50 per cent of the total pyrethrum production in the country.

Many farmers say with devolution, they expected the sector to be revived but this is yet to happen.

In Nakuru, a plan to provide free seedlings that Governor Kinuthia Mbugua started is yet to bear fruit. Farmers accuse the county government of failing to partner with experts to execute the project.

“The county failed to work with agricultural officers who are very experienced and understand how best to grow the crop for better returns. That is why the free seedlings have not helped farmers,” says Mr Maina Muhoro, the secretary of Bahati Pyrethrum Growers Caucus in Nakuru.

The county government hopes to capitalise on renewed demand for the crop to create employment and generate more revenue.

However, farmers say a lot still needs to be down to convince them to go back to Pyrethrum farming.

Mr Julius Njogu, a farmer in Nyandarua , recalls the days PBK paid them every month.

CAN BE PROSECUTED
“It is a shame farmers are now sell the produce to brokers for less than Sh100 per kilogramme,” he adds.

The farmers blame PBK for woes bedevilling the sub-sector and want an audit of the institution so that those responsible for fleecing them can be prosecuted.

Mr Njogu said he had uprooted the crop and left just a few plants hoping that the sector would be revived.

The farmers blame PBK for woes bedeviling the sub-sector and want an audit of the institution conducted so that those responsible for freezing farmers be prosecuted.

They also want the Government to intervene and bail out the ailing sub-sector.

REVIVING THE INDUSTRY

“The Government is so committed to reviving the sugar industry but we are are worried it is letting us down, bearing in mind we used to control the economy when pyrethrum was vibrant,” says Robert Nyakundi a farmer from Turi in Nakuru county.

In last year’s budget, the National government allocated the sector Sh300 million; the same amount it did this financial year, but farmers say unless there is a shakeup in the PBK, elimination of cartels that have swindled farmers for years and assurance of prompt payments, little may be achieved.

PBK has had monopoly of the sub-sector for a longtime, however an act of parliament passed in 2013 which partly liberalized the sector may save the bedridden sub-sector by allowing more players into the hitherto closed sector.

Highchem East Africa is an example of private players that has joined a bid to revive the sector.

Farmers say the separation of functions between the regulator and processor is still a major problem as PBK plays the two functions.