By Edwin Cheserek and Luke Anami
The lushness that greets the eye on arrival to Elgeyo-Marakwet County is breathtaking. But the disparate mushrooming of grass-thatched houses shows that the people living in this rich area are not doing well.
The region is famed for producing some of the sweetest mangoes in the country. The mangoes, which traders have to source via a badly dilapidated road, are sold in major towns like Eldoret, Nakuru, Kitale and Kisumu, regionally in the East African Community countries of Tanzania and Uganda, and are also exported internationally.
But the farmers in the region are not prospering, as one would expect. Instead, they are forced by circumstance to not only lose most of their products in the field, but also sell the products at prices that are far below what they should accept.
And all this is because of the region’s poor road network.
“There is no road that is tarmacked in the area and our fruits easily go to waste because of the amount of time it takes to reach various markets,” laments Raphael Cherop, a mango farmer.
Area Agricultural Officer James Wekesa says the area produces an average of 50,000 metric tonnes of mangoes annually. But only a fraction gets to the market. The area’s high temperatures and humidity, coupled with impassable roads ensure that the overwhelming majority of the fruit goes to waste.
Rotting
“Most produce is rotting in the farms.”
Moreover, farmers are forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices to any traders who dare venture the rough terrain.
Mr Daniel Rotich, who has ten acres under mangoes, says nature has endowed the area with everything it needs to be productive, but they are yet to reap from it.
“The spectacular lush and green mango plantations that defines much of the Kerio Valley plains has remained a curse to the residents,” William Chesingany, Chairman Marakwet County Council said.
Marakwet East District Commissioner (DC) Joseph Kisang’au said the bad state of the roads had forced the residents to depend on relief food yet the area is viable for production of variety of food crops.
“The Government should consider developing areas that is capable of producing commodities that can sustain the inhabitants,” he said.
Marakwet East and Co-operative and Marketing Assistant Minister Linah Kilimo says neglect by successive government administrations has compounded the challenges facing the farmers.
Farming system
The farmers now want a contract farming system where they are compensated for crop losses occasioned by bad roads.
She blamed the Government for abdicating its role as the dominant provider of infrastructure, especially in rural areas. “We feel abandoned because the area produces the fruit in abundance, but little has been done to tap its potentiality. But we want farmers compensated for the poor road network in the area.”
