Sales of passion fruit in Keiyo district in Kenya’s Rift Valley province have dropped significantly since the eruption of violence following the announcement of President Mwai Kibaki as the winner of the December 2007 presidential elections.
“I planted three acres of passion fruit and now I have to feed it to the cows,” laments Elizabeth Mutai, a farmer in the district.
The drop in domestic demand has seen traders from neighbouring countries cashing in on the crisis. According to Mr Mutai, “Traders from across the border now insist on buying a kilogramme at a throwaway price of Ksh5 ($0.07). They then sell the fruit, making a killing at Ksh150 ($2.2) per kg.”
The result is that Mr Mutai’s household has struggled with buying food. Her children’s education has also been affected. She has two children who are expected to report back to the university but she cannot afford the fees.
Maize farmer Francis Kimosop Kimetto complains about the costs of inputs. “Last year, diesel was Ksh60 per litre ($0.9) but now we have to pay Ksh81 per litre ($1.2).” He has also been hit hard by soaring fertiliser prices. “If fertiliser remains this expensive, farmers will revert to the traditional cow dung, which will reduce the yield,” he adds.
Raymond Sande, a maize farmer in Keiyo, suffers from a similar plight. “The price of crop inputs has tripled since the start of the political unrest,” he says. “Farmers here will be out of business if something does not happen urgently,” he concludes.
He uses phosphate fertiliser for the maize crop.
“Last year, I spent Ksh1,500 ($20) on fertiliser. This year I am spending more than double that. There is no profit to look forward to. The Ministry of Agriculture should do something urgently,” says Mr Sande. “We want a minister who will solve our problems,” says Francis Rono, a wheat farmer in Kitale in the North Rift Valley.
This area, part of the bread basket of the country, is one of the regions affected by the political unrest.
But farmers’ woes are further compounded by the fact that there is no minister in charge of agriculture presently.
After the announcement of results of the disputed presidential election, President Mwai Kibaki put in place a lean Cabinet with 10 key ministries represented. Agriculture was not one of them.
Statistics show that farmers have normally prepared more than 30 per cent of their land for tilling by January. However, only 10 per cent is presently ready. Evictions from land and the unavailability of farming inputs and equipment led to this situation.
Food shortages loom as production of wheat and maize has dropped.
Some farmers had not completed harvesting the last season’s crop by the time the violence broke out. Destruction extended to stores being razed.
Maize reserves are inadequate. The National Cereals and Produce Board has 430,000 tonnes of maize in its strategic reserves — enough to supply only the first quarter of the year.
Catherine Wanjiru, a Nairobi resident, expressed shock at how quickly food prices shot up. “I had to cut my budget for the past month because the prices of virtually all commodities have increased by two or three shillings,” she said.
While the shelves of local supermarket chains in Nairobi remain well-stocked, rumours are doing the rounds that traders have been hiding their goods in anticipation of massive price inflation. Messages like “Buy enough stock to last a lifetime as you never know what will happen next,” have been circulating.
Mama Mon’gina, a trader at the Kawangware market, one of the largest retail markets in Nairobi, says she has been able to obtain goods as usual. The mother of six sells traditional green vegetables that she buys from farmers on the outskirts of the city. “I leave early morning for Wangige where I buy the supplies. They are fresh. The farmers can’t hoard their produce because it is perishable. They are only lucky to have us buyers because their goods have been rotting on the farms. There is no one to buy the stuff because people are restricting their movements following the post-election violence.’’
With the disruption of transport services, it is more difficult to move from one place to another.
Meanwhile a report released by the World Food Programme, the US Agency for International Development and the government’s early warning system last year cautioned that limited rains and the low prospect of more rain would exacerbate food shortages.
The food update for February says serious food shortages could be experienced because of the post-election violence, which mainly hurt the bread basket regions of the north Rift Valley and Western Provinces.
More than 1,000 people were killed in the post-election violence that also saw over 300,000 people displaced.
