Kenya encounters wheat losses as drought and disease

Wheat farmers in Narok North and South districts - the leading wheat producing areas in Kenya - are counting their losses following massive crop failure due to prolonged drought and wheat stem rust.

The farmers, most of whom rent the land on which they produce, said this was the second year they had failed to make money from wheat. In 2008, the culprits were drought and post-election violence.

Meteorological reports indicate that it rained only three days in Narok in June, a critical period for wheat, and the rain came after the 22nd day of the month. The drought was so severe that some farmers planted twice.

Joel Yaban, a wheat farmer at Mulot, said he harvested an average of one 90 kg bag per acre from the 100 acres he rented, compared to this years projection of five to 12 bags per acre and the 15-20 bags per acre in the bumper crop four years ago.

He says it is unlikely he will plant wheat again as his money has nearly run out. "While the Agricultural Finance Corporation is helpful, their insistence that you have to give a 50-acre title deed as security for their loan is prohibitive for most of us who are small-scale land holders," he said.

"Farmers decide between engaging a combine harvester and leaving the wheat for livestock. Sometimes we dig deeper into our pockets to pay for harvesting, unlike when there is a good yield and the crop pays for the harvesting cost," said Kariankei ole Musana, a wheat farmer at Ololunga.

The current cost of harvesting an acre of wheat is Sh2,500, but some combine harvester operators said they had lowered their price to Sh1,600 due to poor yields.

A check by the Sunday Nation indicated that many combine harvesters were lying idle at Ololunga, Narok and Mulot towns for want of business.

Hugo Wood, a local farmer and chairman of the Cereal Growers Association, said the situation this year had been compounded by a severe attack by UG 99 stem rust, an especially virulent strain of the fungal disease.

He acknowledged that while the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute was working hard to produce a resistant wheat variety, that process could take four to five years.

"This has forced farmers to incur unforeseen production costs, while those who did not have the funds to buy the expensive fungicide left their crop to go to waste," Mr Wood said. He criticised the recent government move to increase the cess levied on wheat by civic authorities from Sh20 to Sh40 per 90 kg bag.

"Given that we pass through three toll stations to reach Nairobi, we are forced to part with Sh120 per bag, which is punitive to farmers who are already reeling from losses," said Mr Hugo, who grows 7,500 acres of wheat.

He appealed to the government to put the cess money to good use, saying the areas infrastructure was falling apart.

According to data from the Cereal Growers Association, the cost of producing wheat has shot up to Sh31,000 per acre, and for a grower just to break even - pay bills and make a small profit - he or she has to get at least 12 bags an acre and sell them at Sh3,000 each.

The areas worst hit by the drought are Ololunga, Mulot, Ntulele and the area around Narok town. Because Narok is Kenyas leading wheat producer, a crop failure there is always a threat to food security.