Unending pain for Mwea rice farmers
Traders in Mwea (above) have maintained that the prices of rice will remain high until the next harvesting season. They say they have experienced tough times in the past two years due to climate change and high costs of production.
The price of a kilogramme of rice has risen from Sh120 to Sh180 in the past two seasons.
Mwea Irrigation Rice Scheme — which is the largest rice producer in Kenya — has been relying on the seasonal River Thiba for water supply. But the river only supplies enough water once a year, hence permiting just one planting season annually.
The rains, also, have decreased in the past two years, leading to a further drop in rice production.
If the new Thiba Dam supplies adequate water throughout the year, farmers would be able to plant rice all seasons, leading to adequate supply of the commodity.
Thiba Dam was completed in June and is now operational.
Another major challenge is the cost of production, especially fertilisers and chemicals. The farmers spend a lot of resources during planting seasons, supplying rice to traders at higher prices to recover the expenditure.
Meshack Kariuki, a farmer, urged the incoming government to lower the cost of farm inputs. He said cheap imported rice imperils the livelihoods of Kenyan farmers.
“The new government should lower not only the price of fertiliser but of all inputs that affect production of crops, including farm chemicals,” he said
Purity Muthoni, a trader, said the cost of rice would rise until December since farmers have not been able to sow for the past two seasons.
Louse Njagi, another trader in Mwea, said the harvest has not been good in the recent past. She urged consumers not to blame them for the higher prices. “The situation is difficult now. Consumers are not buying rice as much as they used to because of high prices,” Njagi said. - KNA
