Hunger looms in Kitui as pests destroy crops

Most farmers in Kitui are staring at imminent famine after ravenous insects swamped farms, destroying drought-tolerant cowpeas and green grams crops, leaving them counting huge losses.

“Following the inadequate March-April-May (MAM) season rain, we hinged our hope on drought escaping cowpeas and mung beans but they have been completely devoured by the insects," farmer Kitangu Kinandu said on Saturday. 

Kinandu, who showed the Star the extent of damage caused by black-looking aphids on his farm at Kaunike village in Mwingi North subcounty of Kitui, said all hopes his family harvesting any crops have now been dashed.

The elderly farmer said that the poor and inadequate MAM rains caused his bean and maize crops to wither before reaching maturity. He said he banked hopes on cowpeas and green grams that have now come under the attack of destructive insects.

“I used chemical pesticides from agro-chemist stores as well as homemade botanical pesticides to spray but the aphids are so stubborn and resistant to all pesticides. They are not dying,” Kinandu said. 

He said that with the infestation of farms by aphids and black cowpeas weevils, farmers will not harvest any yield considering other crops like maize and beans had stunted, were drying up or had withered.

“As you can see, the infestation of farms by these hardy weevils and aphids have spelled doom on any prospects us having any food yields despite the hard work we put in our farms to prepare for rains.

“With the rains, we hoped to kick famine out but as fate would have it, we are now in the thick of famine as poor rains and the destructive insects have conspired to deny us farm yield this time round,” he sad. 

In Rachael Mwiyendi’s farms that neighbours that of Kitangu, we noted deformed cowpeas pods that had taken an unusual curled shape and had unusual knots following attacks by the cowpeas weevil. The pods had only one or two grains left and were habited by worms.

“Although I had expected good yield from my cowpeas and green gram crop, the weevils have wreaked havoc. All my crops, especially cowpeas, have been destroyed to a large extent," Mwiyendi said. 

“Today, I sifted through the destroyed pods and managed at least a kilograms of cowpeas to cook. I will have nothing substantive to store in my granary as the pesticide resistant weevils threaten to devour everything.” 

The state of affairs in both Mzee Kinandu and Mwiyendi’s farm epitomises the situation in many farms across the peripheral areas of Kitui county where cowpeas and greengrams crops do well even with minimal rains.

When the Star reached out to the Kitui county executive for Agriculture, Stephen Kimwele, on how his department was addressing the infestation.

He said it was unfortunate that the massive iswarming of Aphids would cut the expected farm yield from the just ended long rains in a big way.

He said the situation was worse that aphids have been joined by the white fly insects in devouring crops in farms.

“I am asking farms to use the potent pesticides available in local agro vet stores to effectively fight the pests,” Kimwele told a press briefing.

The CEC however asked the residents not to consume freshly sprayed farm crops as the chemicals used could be lethal.

“Residents should wait for four or more days before picking the crops for eating,” he added.

However, a top county agricultural official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the infestation of farms across the county by the aphids and cowpeas weevils.

The agronomist also said that decimating the crop predators was an uphill task as they were resistant to most available pesticides. He said efforts were being made to advice farmers on efficient pesticide varieties.

Koma said that the invasion on cowpeas and green grams crops by aphids and weevils in hordes would regrettably adversely affected the farm yields from the ended MAM season.

The Kitui NDMA boss Francis Koma has said the insects’ infestation spells doom on hopes of food security in the county as expected yields would drop drastically.

“Farmers face double loss. They had expected about 75 per cent harvest due to poor rains, but now the same yield will be reduced drastically following destruction by the ravenous insects. It points to serious food insecurity,” the county NDMA boss said. 

He advised that going forward, government agricultural extension offices should be pro-active enough to share with farmers the right information.

This includes the right pesticides and when to spray to keep off highly destructive insects like aphid and weevils at bay. 

Koma said the same should be coupled with access to the ideal pesticides and at a subsidised price as most farmers were poor and could hardly afford highly-prized insect spraying chemicals.