Kitui farmers admit failure to heed expert advice on crops

Kitui farmers have admitted that they are to blame for the massive crop failure and the associated food insecurity following the October-December rains.

A spot check in various parts of Kitui East, Kitui Rural, Kitui South, Mwingi East, Mwingi Central and Mwingi North shows that a big percentage of maize and bean crops have already withered.

Farmers who spoke to the Star owned up to the failure to heed the advisory by agricultural and weather experts.

The experts had advised farmers to plant ideal crops for the heavy but short lived rains. 

Earlier, Kitui national drought management authority coordinator Francis Koma said the number of Kitui residents in dire need of relief food had doubled from 113,600 to 226,200 despite the October-December short rains.

Kitui county has an estimated population of about 1.2 million people.

Koma said farmers ignored and important advisory from the met department, aggravating the famine situation.

“The number of people in need of food assistance has gone up because we have not harvested anything and we are not going to harvest anything.

"Mainly they (people) will just eat from the farms and that will be all,” Koma told the media in Kitui recently. 

Farmers said as the beans and maize failed in most farms, those who planted drought tolerant crops are least worried.

They said those who farmed millet, sorghum, cowpeas and mung beans will realise a substantial harvest that would keep hunger at bay for their families.                                   

"It poured heavily for slightly over a month between November and December but we are staring at hunger because the maize and beans I planted have failed.

"I am not alone in this and it is clear we are faced with serious food shortage," Kitheka Mukuni of Tulanduli village in Mwingi North said.

 Ngenesi Musyoka,  an elderly farmer from Kaunguni, Mwingi Central said on Tuesday that majority of residents were faced with hunger because they planted the wrong crops during the  October-December rain season.                                                                                     

"Although I am old, I am not naive to the fact that local farmers are to blame for the food shortage we are experiencing.

"We have been obsessed with planting exotic crops like maize and beans that do well only when the rain season is extremely good," 73-year-old Musyoka said.

He said it was time people went back to their roots and reverted to growing drought resistant indigenous crops like millet, green grams, sorghum and cowpeas. 

To confirm Musyoka's assertion, a visit to Munyoki Mwinzi's farm in Kiemani village of Kyuso and that of Pastor Samuel  Kimwele of AIC Kaunguni church revealed fields of mature mung beans and cowpeas ready for harvest.                     

The duo said they were not worried about having food for their families until March-May rain season.

They were also expecting a good harvest even as maize and beans wither elsewhere.

Mwingi Central Agricultural officer Pauline Kyavoa said her department had advised the farmers to plant drought tolerant crops as the ended rain season was forecast to be short.

She said the few who heeded to the advisory are assured of good crop yield.       

Kyavoa said the rain was not enough for crops like beans and maize which require a lot of moisture to grow to maturity.

She said heeding expert advisory, use of the right seeds and proper farm management as was the case with a few famers assured of good yield even as the maize and beans crop failed. 

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)