Middlemen target desperate farmers to buy their produce at cheaper price

Green maize trader sort out the produce at Kisii County market on May 11,2016 morning after the arrival of the produce from other counties

NAIROBI, KENYA: Farmers are being urged not to fall into the traps of middlemen at this time when harvesting time nears.

Export Trading Group Country Director Shem Odhiambo says farmers in Kenya have for a long time been exposed to unscrupulous businessmen who would buy their produces at throwaway prices, leaving them in poverty.

"We must guard against exploitations during harvesting periods if we are to see thousands of our small-scale farmers thrive," he said in Trans-Nzoia County during a farmers' sensitisation on minimising post-harvest losses.

According to experts, farmers in Kenya lose about 50 per cent of their total produce before and after harvesting. The pre-harvest losses, they say, are caused by primarily pests and weeds while the post-harvest losses occur due to poor infrastructure, lack of proper storage facilities, poor market information, lack of processing equipment and destruction caused by pests and rodents.

Frustrated by these losses, Mr Odhiambo said most farmers had ended up selling their produce directly at harvest, rather than waiting for a time when prices are more favourable.

"It does not make sense to talk about increasing agricultural productivity when a better portion of it goes to waste. So, to tame these losses, ETG has come up with modern storage facilities which have been strategically erected across the country. We are also developing innovations in drying farm produce," he said.

The inputs supplier with a global presence says it plans to expand its sensitisation reach to Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Burundi, and later the whole of Africa. This way, it observes, farmers' potential income would increase, there would be a better access to nutritious food and increased food security in the region.

For the last five years, ETG has been rolling out an ambitious plan that seeks to educate farmers, provide them with high quality inputs and guarantee them lucrative markets for their produce. So far, the project has yielded fruits especially in Rift Valley, Central, Western and Eastern regions.

"Food production has gone up. Vulnerable farmers' incomes have increased, translating to better living standards," said Mr Odhiambo.

In its bid to ensure the region is good stable, later this month ETG is launching a fertiliser blending plant in Mombasa. With a daily production capacity of 150,000 tonnes, the plant would produce fertilisers that are soil-specific. 

ETG says the blending plant would help tame high prices of the farm input.