Nyeri residents basking in joy as fresh produce flood markets

Nyeri, Thursday, July 13, 2023

KNA by Samuel Maina/Mercy Ndegwa

Prices of food in Nyeri are slowly coming down thanks to an influx of fresh farm produce into the market.

This comes at a time when the majority of the residents in the county had been struggling to put a single meal on the table due to the high cost of basic items including food items amidst a biting economic times.

The situation had been worsened by a severe drought that had seen farmers miss out on their harvests for five successive failed rain seasons.

But a spot check within Nyeri town by KNA has revealed prices of major food crops such as maize and potatoes have gone down.

Currently, the price of a 17-kilogram bucket of potatoes is selling at Sh 500 down from Sh 1,500 two months ago.

A pile of three maize cobs is selling at Sh 40 compared to last month when a single maize cob was selling at Sh 25.

Also on the decline are the prices of cabbages, green peas, and carrots which were hard to come by a month ago.

A kilogram of carrots is currently retailing at Sh 40 per kilogram down from Sh 150 per kilogram last month while cabbage is currently retailing at between Sh 10 and Sh 20 apiece.

Two months ago, cabbage was selling at Sh 50 and Sh 80 per piece due to a scarcity in the supply.

On the other hand, a kilo of green peace is going for Sh 50 down from Sh 80 a few weeks ago.

Dennis Kamau, a greengrocer seller at the Kamukunji open-air market confirmed to KNA that the prices of fresh produce and other food produce were on a downward decline owing to the good rains that have been experienced in the county.

He similarly disclosed that many residents had taken to the cultivation of potatoes and green peas after realizing they were in great demand besides fetching good prices.

“We even expect the prices of potatoes and green peas to drop further once all farmers finally do their harvesting. The prices of fresh farm produce such as vegetables had equally skyrocketed due to scarcity in supply but now there is an increase with each passing day,” he explained.

Kelvin Waigwa, a maize trader at the Nyeri Open market says the influx of green maize into the market has led to few clients due to the fact that the majority of their clients also happen to be maize farmers.

He says Nyeri being an agricultural county where maize forms part of the area’s staple food means most people no longer have to come to the market to buy the commodity when they can get the same direct from their farms. 

“A few months ago, when there was a scarcity of maize in Nyeri we had to travel as far as Meru to get the produce. By then I used to sell as much as 2,000 pieces of maize on a single day compared to today when I barely manage to sell 1,000 pieces due to high supply,” he explained.

But it is not only the traders who are savoring the new windfall as far as the influx of fresh produce into the market is concerned.

Sarah Wanjiru who is a resident of Nyeri says the harvest season has come as a boon to low-income earners who had been struggling with the high cost of living.

Wanjiru observed that despite the hard economic times, the common citizen can now be in a position to afford food at a much cheaper price compared to a few months ago.

“We are now happy we can at least afford foodstuffs such as potatoes at an affordable price compared to what we used to spend a few months ago. The high supply of other farm products such as maize and vegetables also means no one will starve as there is something one can buy with the little money he or she has,” she says.

Kenya had been battling her worst drought season for over four decades owing to worsening ecological changes blamed on climate change.

In the wake of five failed rainy seasons, close to 2.5 million animals had reportedly died by early this year and at least 5 million Kenyans had been reported to be in urgent need of food relief.

In 2021 the World Food Program (WFP) estimated that four consecutive failed seasons in the country had resulted in close to 2.4 million livestock deaths, dried-out water sources, and sharply reduced harvests.

The number of people in urgent need of food assistance had by then risen five-fold, from 739,000 in August 2020 to 3.5 million in June 2022.

Kieni East and Kieni West constituencies were among areas that were hard hit by drought in Nyeri since last year leaving at least 200,000 families fully dependent on relief food.

Other areas that were also affected by the drought included Mathira East and Mathira West.

The government had initially set aside Sh 8 billion for the purposes of providing food to affected families and feeds for livestock in drought-ravaged areas of Nyeri.

Humanitarian agency World Vision had also injected Sh 3.5 billion into the program which was to include rehabilitating boreholes.

The Government in conjunction with the European Union donated 1,120 bags of animal feed to livestock farmers in the Kieni constituency in a bid to boost dairy production in the area.

The feeds were part of 5,040 bags that the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) had requisitioned to support the farmers in the Kieni East and Kieni West sub-county during the entire drought season. 

Humanitarian partners had estimated there will be 6.4 million people in need of relief food assistance this year in the ASALs region of Kenya.

It is also reported that at least 4.35 million people were going to bed hungry and about 5 million people could not access enough water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning.

The United Nations and humanitarian partners in Kenya had appealed for $472.6 million to help feed 4.3 million drought-affected people this year alone.

Courtesy ;  K. N. A