Shock, panic over rains and food prices

Coffee farmers sort cherry after they delivered their produce at Giakanja Coffee Factory in Nyeri. [KIbata Kihu/Standard]

Shock and panic has engulfed Mt. Kenya region over possibilities of rain failures in March, April and May signaling of mass failure of tea, co­ffee and horticultural crops which drive the economy of the region.

Already, tea bushes are drying in some areas, while co­ffee flowering has withered due to no rainfall in some areas. The rivers are also drying, a­ffecting flow of water into the many micro-irrigation community projects that are used to grow crops like tomatoes, cabbages, bananas, and sukumawiki.