RICE FARMERS AT AHERO SCHEME SAY THEY HAVE PRODUCED MORE THAN 4000 TONES BUT HAVE NO MARKET WHERE TO SELL THEIR PRODUCE.

Farming, Mews By Leo Odera Omolo In Ahero Town.

ABOUT 2000 small scale farmers in Ahero and Kabonyo rice schemes in Nyando district are stuck with close to 400 metric tones of rice, which they cannot sale because there is no buyer interested in their produce.

The farmers, who own small plots at both Ahero and Kabonyo rice schemes, said they worked so hard last season and harvested over 400 tones of paddy. But the crops are almost going to waste. There is no market outlet and the farmers are now stuck with their produce.

Previously, a Thika based company called Kapwell, which is closely associated with a Nairobi media magnate, Mr S.K.Macharia was the main buyer of rice from the two schemes. The other outlets were the Kenya Army, the National Cereal and Produce Board {{NCPB},and the Rice Mill based at Kibos in the outskirt of Kisumu City, which is owned by the Lake Basin Development Authority {LBDA}. But all have stopped buying rice from Ahero.

The farmers at the two scheme cannot pay school fees for their children, most of whom have already been ejected by the heads of secondary schools wherever they were learning, owing to non payment of school fees..

The farmers have now sent an urgent message to the government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, to come to their rescue. The NCPB is still buying rice from the two Kano Plain based scheme, but in a small quantity, preferring only the pushori brand, which is produced at the two schemes in small quantity.

All the stores at Ahero are full, with stockpiles of tones of unsold rice. Some are almost going to the waste due to lack of storage facilities.

A farmer at Ahero, Peter Onyango, said that a local farmers co-operative society called Recc has been organizing marketing system on behalf of farmers. But the society too, cannot make an easy access to the market outlet, and the situation has remained pathetic.

The farmers have done their part in helping the government in its ambitious poverty eradication policy. But to their astonishment after hard work, they are stuck with the produce.

Mr Onyango pleaded with the government to ensure that it organize internal marketing system for the rice farmers in Nyanza. He said the situation is so pathetic and worrying in away, considering that these farmers have spent several months sweating, and have exhausted their savings in anticipation of getting paid, when their product is ready.

The situation is no better for the farmers in the self help schemes, like Ayweyo and Ahero, who are popularly known as “Achung’ Kenda” farmers. They are also suffering because they cannot sell the bulk of rice which they produced since November last year.

“There is no point for the government encouraging the farmers to produce the product, which they cannot market and quickly recover the production expenses and other overheads in time”, lamented Mr. Onyango.

Fuming with anger, the chairman of the Riwruok Dongruok Jokano Manyien{RIDOKAM}, Mr. Walter Kitoto Adell, who took this writer around the stores, which are filled with thousands of gunny bags of unsold rice in Ahero, appealed to the government to re-organize the internal marketing system for the paddy farmers.

Mzee Adell said the rice farmers within the two schemes have proved their worthiness and positively responded to the government’s call for concerted efforts in food production .

“It is time for the government to adopt a pragmatic policy on agriculture and food security. Thousands of tons of rice is currently going to waste at Ahero, and yet reports emerging from other parts of the country, indicates Kenyans are known to be dying due to acute shortage of food grains. It is also wrong for the government to encourage the local population to produce more rice, which they cannot access its market easily.” Said Mzee Adell..

A cross section of rice farmers interviewed in Ahero and its environs bitterly complained, saying they were stuck with a huge stockpile of rice, which they cannot sell. Two rice processing plants located at Ahero have their warehouses full of unsold tons of rice, and cannot buy anymore.

The farmers said if the situation does not change for the better within the next two months, then they would consider other option, which might include abandoning the growing of rice for other cash crops.

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com