Farmers train on long term storage of cereals

By Patrick Muriungi

and Vincent Mabatuk

Meru County

A non-governmental organisation has moved in Imenti South District to train farmers how to store their cereals for a long time so that they can only sell when prices are high.

Under Mwegiki commercial village, small scale farmers in Mweru location who have come together in the Commercial Village Stores (CVS) project have received Sh2 million from the sale of their produce, which they ‘banked’ early this year.

"Together with the Ministry of Agriculture, we train the farmers on post harvest handling and also link them to Business Development Services (BDS) so that we can achieve our vision which is commercialised African households with increased income and better livelihoods," said Mr Milton Maingi, the programme coordinator.

The CVS is a project being implemented by Farm Concern International, funded by USAID Compete.

"The farmers under this project have wholly benefited through the formation of commercial villages.

Each commercial village has about 200 to 300 farmers who work and market their produce together to improve quantity and quality so as to attract good prices and have a bargaining power.

Commercial villages

Farmers have established cereal banks that after storing their produce, they wait for prices to improve and sell at a better price. "More so, the commercial villages have benefited from purchasing inputs together in wholesale price hence saving a lot of costs," said Mr Maingi.

Meanwhile, agricultural experts now want farmers to switch to conservation farming in order to increase productivity. According to the experts, farm ploughing has remained the major contributing factor to soil erosion and degradation.

Speaking to Agriculture and livestock stakeholders in Nakuru town, Tom Apina the executive secretary Sustainable Agriculture Information Initiative, said ploughing of farms by the small-scale farmers is hampering productivity.

The programme, which is sponsored by the Federal Republic of Germany, aims to scale up conservation and improve agriculture practices among smallholder farmers in nine Districts.