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NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

Farmers get new survival tactics to beat Covid-19 pandemic

News

By Allan Mungai | Jun 16, 2020

**An employee of Snow View Farm in Kieni, Nyeri, harvests fresh beans. [Kibata Kihu/Standard]**

Up until March this year, if you asked David Ndegwa, proprietor of Snow View Farm, the top three crops, he would have easily cited broccoli, runner and French beans. Having exported these three high value crops for some solid years, he can easily vouch for them.

That was before coronavirus pandemic hit. Then, he had secured lucrative orders with top restaurants, supermarkets and a rich export market in Europe.

Then Covid-19 hit denting the flourishing horticultural export industry and that is how demand for his vegetables vanished overnight.

Now he has been forced to uproot acres of broccoli, runner and French beans on his 100-acre Snow View Farm in Narumoru, Nyeri County.

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For the last few weeks, the farmer and his skeleton staff have been uprooting and destroying the crop replacing it with good old Irish potatoes.

“I had secured a contract with an export company to grow broccoli, runner and French beans. But when the coronavirus hit, my buyer lost the market for Grade 2 runner beans and was forced to reduce the quantity of produce he was buying. I had to stop growing the crop,” Ndegwa laments.

The Grade 2 runner beans made up close to half of his produce, and now Ndegwa has to throw it all away. To avoid massive losses, he is also exploring ways to dispose off the produce like in the local market. But there is a challenge.

“The problem with horticulture is that the local consumption is small and for that reason we are forced to sell our produce at throw away prices,” he says.

Uprooting crops

Farmers like Ndegwa who cultivate crops exclusively for export are realising they have to think outside the box to stay afloat.

As a coping mechanism, Snow View Farm is embracing the good old Irish potatoes.

“At least then I am assured of a local market,” Ndegwa says.

Like, Ndegwa, other farmers who had secured key markets with restaurants and schools for their produce such as eggs, milk, vegetables and meat have to think of alternative markets.

Zachary Munyambu, a poultry farmer in Thika, has lost a key mass market for his eggs and now he has been forced to sell his eggs at the local market at non-competitive prices.

Nowhere to sell

Farmers are now selling a tray of eggs at between Sh230 to Sh250, down by about Sh100.

“The reason why prices of produce like eggs have dropped significantly is because farmers who were supplying large scale markets like schools, institutions of higher learning and hotels have nowhere to take their produce and now they are flooding the local market,” Munyambu says.

A number of farmers have also been left with large numbers of broiler chicken whose primary market was restaurants and fast food joints, majority of which are closed.

Such farmers have to continue feeding the broilers even with no market in sight. Broilers reach slaughter weight of about two kilogrammes at between five to seven weeks, and now at more than nine weeks, the birds are eating into already struggling businesses by continue to consume feeds. Some farmers have opted to cull them as a coping mechanism.

Others have opted for extreme measures such as hawking the chicken in residential areas and in small towns not affected by the restriction.

“Others have put signs in their gate announcing they are selling their chicken for as low as Sh300, which is basically a loss given the amount of feeds the bird has consumed to achieve the target weight,” Munyambu says.

Like poultry farmers, pig farmers are also feeling the heat.

Drop in prices

The pork meat processor Farmer’s Choice has reduced the price it is paying farmers for their pigs due to the loss of its key market - restaurants.

When the pandemic hit, the processor sent a notice to farmers announcing that it would reduce its price by five per cent.

Ann Kimani, a pig farmer, wishes they would pay the lower price and still continue buying the farmers pigs.

For a month now, Kimani says she has been stuck with pigs mature enough for slaughter but has nowhere to take them.

“Initially, they would send in one of their inspectors to come and see your swine and then you wait for three weeks before they collect your order. But that wait has become longer,” she says.

As she continues to wait, the swine continues eating, worsening an already desperate situation, eating into her enterprise sinking her further into debt.

“The plan was to sell these eight pigs and use the money to feed another 11 piglets. I bought the piglets on credit and I do not see myself clearing that debt any time soon. To manage their feeding habits, I have left some of them to roam outside as they scavenge for feeds,” she says.

As the pandemic continues to bite, the farmers hope the government comes to their aid with a safety net of some sorts.

Recently, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a stimulus package to rebound the economy which included a Sh1.5 billion to assist horticultural producers.

The cash will help them access international markets and Sh3 billion will help 200,000 small scale farmers access farm inputs.

The interventions are meant to cushion farmers from the effects of adverse weather, and to secure food supply chains in the post Covid-19 period.

Though farmers are bogged down on all sides by falling prices, limited demand, shortages of key inputs and lockdown restrictions they are optimistic that things will pick up soon even as the economy is slowly opening up.