www.Kisii.Com: Syndicated news from only reputable sources [Nation, and Standard Newspapers, Kenya Times, KBC, etc.]

Kisii farmers fail to reap the fruits of their labour

  • Print
Details
Published on Thursday, 12 February 2009 03:08
The story of Monica Isaac and  her husband, Isaac Morara Moses, of Suneka in Kisii epitomises the tribulations of fruit farmers and traders in the district. For the last five years, the couple has been selling avocado, sugarcane and bananas at the Ekerorano or Miwa stage on the Kisii-Nyamira road.

But there is nothing to show for their five-year labour as fruit and sugarcane farmers and traders. The problem is not poor productivity. It is marketing. In an attempt to solve the persistent marketing problem, farmers in the area, particularly the youth, formed the Ekerorano Youth Group.

With more than 200 members, the group founded a market along the Kisii Nyamira highway where they would sell their farm products. The market, which came to be known by its founders name, Ekerorano, remains the only outlet for the members’ produce. Initially, sugarcane was the main item of trade at the market  — earning the name Stage Miwa.

But a visit to the market on Sundays  or Wednesdays— the market days—reveal the farmers’ plight. Trading can hardly be termed a commercial venture. The prices are so depressed that the business can rightly be termed petty trade.