Poor weather, pests frustrate wheat production in Narok county
Stem rust, poor rainfall and quelea birds invasion has compromised this year’s wheat yields in Narok, the biggest producer in the country.
Farmers have harvested less then ten, 90 kg bags per acre, down from the expected 30 bags. Agricultural officials say most farmers are harvesting between three and seven bags per acre, the worst since 1999 when there was a crop failure.
“Rains were below average and came too late, after the farmers had already planted. Stem rust and later a bird invasion made the situation worse,” Shem Shikuku, the Narok Agricultural officer said.
Farmers said they planted certified seeds and practised good crop husbandry. However, they are accusing the Kenya Seeds Company Ltd of selling seeds susceptible to the fungal disease.
They also accused the county government of failing to avail pesticides and aircraft to contain quelea birds menace despite having advance knowledge that the avians were migrating to wheat fields from breeding grounds at Lake Natron, Tanzania.
Large-scale farms
John Koini, a farmer from Ololulunga area, says he gathered less than 10 bags an acre from 150 acres. He accuses authorities of abandoning farmers in the last few years.
“Last year, fall worms wrecked untold losses. Pesticides were inadequate and expensive. We pleaded for subsidies but nobody heard our appeals,” he said.
Duncan Totona, also a large-scale farmer from Olopito, said the destructive birds which fly in thousands invaded his farm late last month as the crop was ripening. “I wonder how I will repay a Sh1.8 million loan I had borrowed from a local bank to finance the crop,” he said.
He said more than three decades since stem rust was first reported in Narok, research to find seeds resistant to the disease have flopped.
Shikuku said the ministry is assisting farmers with technical support to combat diseases and pests, adding that it acted when birds invaded farms. “If we didn’t deploy personnel and other logistics, destruction would have been bigger,” he said.
Worse, farm gate price of Sh2,500 a bag is too low. They want millers to start buying their produce to stablise prices. “The price traders are offering is too low to make us meet our overheads. It will fall further if millers fail to come,” said Lekina Kameto, from Oloshapani area in Narok South.
Huge stocks
A field manager with an Eldoret-based miller, who declined to be named, said millers were yet to agree on prices to offer farmers, adding that most of them have huge stocks in their godowns from previous two harvests and imports.
The main agricultural activity in the county is livestock keeping, followed by wheat, barley, maize, beans, Irish potatoes and horticultural farming.
Wheat is the second most important cereal grain crop after maize and is grown in areas such as Narok, Kitale, Nakuru, Trans-Nzoia, Uasin Gishu as well as parts of Laikipia, among others. The major variety of wheat grown in Kenya is Durum.
