Kitui agriculture executive Stephen Kimwele speaks in his office /MUSEMBI NZENGUA farmer in Ndaluni village, Mwingi West subcounty, is counting losses after his entire maize crop failed due to the poor March-April-May (MAM) long rains.
Shedrack Muli, who had
planted in anticipation of a good harvest, now has nothing in his food store.
Instead, he is forced to walk to Ndaluni trading centre whenever he craves
githeri, a boiled mixture of maize and legumes.
“My entire maize crop wilted and eventually dried up before reaching maturity. I can only take consolation in the few bags of pigeon peas I managed to harvest,” Muli told the Star on Monday.
In Ikanga, in southern Kitui, farmer Redemptor Mwende faced a similar misfortune. She said the maize she planted in the MAM season withered, leaving her with only dry stalks fit for feeding her cows.
“When I planted maize, I expected a good harvest, but fate dictated otherwise. The depressed rains led to total crop failure. I realised zero harvest,” Mwende said.
She has harvested and stored the stalks for her cows during the dry spell ahead of the October-November-December (OND) rains.
Muli and Mwende’s experience reflects the wider situation in Kitui, where farmers ignored official advisories against planting maize during the depressed MAM season.
Kitui director of meteorological services Daniel Mbithi had warned in advance that the rainfall would be below normal in most areas, insufficient to grow maize and other water-demanding crops such as beans. Only high-altitude areas were deemed suitable for maize.
Farmers who ignored the advisory suffered huge losses as their maize dried up.
Kitui agriculture executive Stephen Kimwele said the crop failure was largely confined to farmers who disregarded the forecast.
“The adverse effects of climate change mean rainfall in Kitui has become increasingly erratic and unreliable,” he said. “That’s why my ministry has been running an ‘Operation No Maize’ campaign.”
He said an encouraging number of farmers are now abandoning water-thirsty maize in favour of drought-tolerant crops, such as cowpeas, green grams and sorghum.
County figures show areas under maize cultivation declined from 97,903 acres (39,620ha) to 882,693 acres (33,465ha) in the last MAM season. Coupled with poor rainfall, maize production plummeted from the long-term average of 80,440 bags to 47,491 bags.
In contrast, acreage under cowpeas increased from 84,558 acres (34,179ha), yielding 79,720 bags, to 95,610 acres (38,962ha), which produced 103,432 bags. Despite the poor rains, green gram production also rose significantly, from an average of 92,724 bags to 146,522 bags.
“Farmers are heeding advice and embracing drought-tolerant crops. Nutrition experts are also promoting cowpeas because of their high nutritional value,” Kimwale said.
“Even in the market, the
price of cowpeas now rivals that of green grams.”
The CEC attributed the shift to sustained farmer training and widespread dissemination of climate-smart agriculture messages.
