Rodents assault 20,000 luggage of Nyanza rice in market woes

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Rodents attack 20,000 bags of Nyanza rice in a market crisis

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Sacks of paddy rice at the Ahero drying yard in Kisumu. PHOTO | ONDARI OGEGA | NMG

BY ELIZABETH OJINA
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Summary

• Over 20,000 bags of paddy rice waste in the Ahero’s drying yard, and rodents and pests have a day in the field.
• In Nyatike, Migori County, farmers held about 10,000 sacks and waited for a market to be ready.

Rice farmers in Ahero (Kisumu) and Nyatike (Migori) could run into Sh76 million after the harvest as there is no market.

Over 20,000 bags of paddy rice waste in the Ahero’s drying yard, and rodents and pests have a day in the field.

In Nyatike, Migori County, farmers held about 10,000 sacks and waited for a market to be ready.

Farmers relied on the Kenya National Trading Corporation to buy their products and later sell them to government institutions.

However, after the deal got sour, they resorted to selling to Ugandan and Tanzanian traders.

Both Ugandan and Tanzanian traders buy the rice for 30 Shillings per kilo, which local farmers believe is too low.

“The schools will open soon. We are having a hard time selling the rice at a throwaway price to survive, ”said Juma, a farmer in Ahero who recently harvested 30 sacks of rice and could soon see 120 sacks harvesting the remaining fields.

Mr. John Odindo, another farmer, is concerned about how he will sell his harvested rice quickly so he can repay a Sh580,000 loan he took out from Agriculture Finance Corporation.

“Interest is rolling, but I don’t know how we’ll handle the loan. We’re supposed to prepare for the next planting season, but the land is fallow, ”said Odindo.

Typically, farmers sell their rice through the established co-operatives who later grind and sort the products before selling them to the Kenya National Trading Corporation.

In January 2020, President Uhuru Kenyatta issued an order to the KNTC to purchase local rice with a budget of Sh660 million. The farmers of Ahero and Nyatike could have benefited greatly from this.

Joel Tanui, senior manager of the Western Kenya Scheme, said farmers are desperate to sell their rice to repay the loans they took out and get back into the production cycle.