Eldoret, Kenya: Even as the Government struggles to address food shortage in some parts of the country, anxiety hangs over the expected levels of maize harvest later in the year.
The North Rift region, classified as the country’s grain basket, suffered persistent dry spells just after farmers had sown their seeds at the onset of initial rains in mid-March, casting fear of poor harvest at the end of this season.
The failed rains in March through April forced some farmers to harrow out their poorly germinated maize to prepare their farms for wheat plantations. The move implies a drastic reduction of expected maize production acreage in the season.
A spot check by The Standard on some maize fields in Uasin Gishu County establishes uneven growth of the crop with farmers bracing for poor harvest in the season. This means the country’s food security is at stake. However, the Government is planning to import 720,000 bags of maize in the middle of the season.
“I spent Sh30,000 per acre to plant five acres of maize at the onset of the rains towards end of March. There is uneven germination and my heavy investment is still on the ground,” said Linah Korir, a maize farmer at Kaptuli in Uasin Gishu during an earlier interview. Moris Kibet, a farmer at Sergoit said: “We acquired loans ahead of the planting season and expected good rains. Despite predictions of heavy rains by the meteorological department, what we experienced is wind and sunny conditions.”
Following the dry spell that lasted about two months in the region, the Agricultural department in Uasin Gishu summoned all officials in the six sub-counties to carry out an assessment of cereals, mainly maize and beans in the county.
According to the survey carried out between May 13 and 21, the rains received in the current season are poor in terms of temporal and spatial distribution compared to what the region receives normally in the past years.
“The lack of rain had a negative impact on the crops in the field that showed poor germination, lack of uniformity and a poor performance due to water stress,” the report received by The Standard reads in part.
Flower abortion
The report shows that the dry spell led to stunted growth in both maize and beans. Other effects caused included flower abortion and poor pod filling, high incidence of aphids in beans and maize fields and high incidence of stalk borer infestation. The assessment that was carried out in Turbo, Soy, Ainabkoi, Moiben, Kesses and Kapseret says the drought led to a general lack of uniformity in the production of crops.
“Farms have crops at different stages with some maize germinating in the same farms when others are two feet high. For beans, some are at the flowering stage while others are germinating, thus delaying some farm activities such as weeding and top dressing,” states the report.
Agricultural officials established that the germination percentage in the county is at 80 per cent, adding that the maize seeds that failed to germinate early but survived in the soil started to sprout immediately with the rains that started towards the end of May.
The report also established that approximately 91,680 hectares out of the targeted total of 93,900 hectares in Uasin Gishu was planted with maize, translating to 98 per cent.
Of the total acreage, farmers in the region gapped 6,602 hectares to fill spaces where seeds failed to germinate due to the drought. As a result, farmers repeatedly ploughed 393 hectares to re-plant maize or other crops after initial seeds failed to germinate.
Uasin Gishu still has food stocks of 2,216,150 bags in the hands of farmers, National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), traders and millers.
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