Farmers from Nyandarua county have registered the Kenya National Potato Growers and Traders Association to champion their interests.
The association is meant to address issues of high cost of production, access to markets and value addition in the agriculture-rich county.
The farmers said they were keen to work with the KFC to address the current shortage of potatoes in their outlets.
According to the group leader George Kimani, potato farming employs hundreds of famers in Nyandarua and is a source of livelihood for residents.
The High Court advocate urged the government to enact policies that promote local potato farmers and traders.
“Heavy tariffs and taxes on imported potato and other farm produce should be imposed on multinational [companies] that are not convinced of buying local farm produce,” he said.
He added that they were in the process of registering a national potato farming and stakeholder body that would champion the production and processing of potatoes.
“Potato is the second most consumed food in Kenya after maize but farmers lack a market and continue to suffer huge losses due to high costs of production,” he said.
Kimani added that last year they filed a petition to challenge the implementation of the Irish Potato Regulations of 2019 which was enacted without public participation.
“After filing the petition and negotiating with some of the implementers of the regulations, the harassment of farmers, transporters, dealers and traders has reduced,” he said.
The Nyandarua South potato dealers chairman Mark Wahome said that it was imperative to form a Potato Board of Kenya to regulate research, seed production, marketing and value addition.
“Farmers, transporters and processors want a ceasefire in the arrest by the police and county officers in the name of enforcing these laws,” he said.
Wahome added that the farmers were in fear due to the harassment by the county enforcement officers and the police over tens of rules that they were supposed to follow.
“The law requires we register and get licenses from the county to ferry the produce among other punitive laws and this is killing the sector that employs thousands,” he said.
This was echoed by Samuel Kiarie, a farmer, who said that farming potato now bordered on criminality in a region that knew no other cash crop.
“The potato regulations will kill the production of potatoes in the county and the livelihood of farmers who for years have relied on this crop,” he said.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
