TWS|| Nick Waigwa
I recently I received both good and
disturbing news. The good news is the confirmation of the pontiff’s
visit to Kenya. The sad news is about how farm produce is going to waste
in some parts of Kenya as the cost of food in cities and major towns
continue to sky rocket.
I will be blogging about Pope
Francis’ visit to Kenya in the coming days but for now I get to the bit
about wastage of food at the expense of farmer’s livelihoods and the
consumers food security.
As
a farmer who knows what it takes to journey with a crop to its
maturity, I must confess that the most painful experience is to see how
buyers treat farmers with disdain and subject them to dehumanizing
prices. In fact it is only in Kenya where the cost of farming inputs is
never factored when the costing of farm produce is done. The reality of
incurred costs get to life once the produce has reached the markets.
A
couple of days ago, I gave my mother a call to find out how they were
doing. Usually she would start with all the good staff then get to the
negative ones. She was disappointed that her tomatoes did not fetch the
money she had expected.
If I may quote her “ sai nyanya huku zina pigwa mateke, Hata hakuna magari ya wanunuzi.” For
the sake of those who don’t understand Swahili, what she meant is that
tomatoes are going to waste and there are no buyers. Tomato is usually
bought by investors from cities through brokers or middlemen who impose
dehumanizing pric
es on farmers.
Disturbed by
this reality I took time to visit a local retail market on mission to
establish how much tomato is retailing at. I also sought to find out how
much green maize and dry beans were retailing. My finding was mind
boggling.
With all due respect to the value chain
existing between the farmer and the consumer you will not require a
financial analyst to tell you that something is wrong. There are two
casualties in this exploitation the farmer on one side and the consumer
on the other end.
A
grade 1 tomato in the local market I visited is retailing at KSH 10,
one comb of green maize is retailing at KSH 25 and Kg of the Yellow Bean
as is commonly called is retailing at KSH 100.
According
to those on the ground in areas where these items come from; a large
crate of tomato is as I write retailing at between KSH 1500 to 2000. A
person who understands the large crate I am talking about would agree
with me that the crate carries over 200 tomatoes.
A
comb of green maize in Loitokitok hardly goes beyond KSH 10. The last
time I checked it was KSH 5. The buyers go for the best and if one is
not careful they steal close to a quarter of the harvest. A kg of the
“yellow bean” would hardly go beyond KSH40 but shoots to KSH100 once it
gets to the city.
It is only a fool by choice who would
not be able to see the level of exploitation. Farmers continue to
suffer losses as consumers get exposed to food insecurity and
malnutrition because of opportunistic investors who thrive on other
people’s sweat.
As the lady who sold a comb of green maize to me said, “anaye lima na anaye nunua hapa sokoni ndio wanaumia”
she meant that those who suffer most are the farmers and the consumer.
It is very hard to justify the disparity between the prices of food at
the producers farm and the cost of the same once it reaches the market.
A
friend from foreign country I chose not publish here once told me.
‘Kenyan are stupidly patient’ whether that is true or not, I have chosen
not to be stupidly patient on this one. As an African leader, I am one
by the way, I chose to heed St. John Paul the II's advice to African
leaders when he visited Kenya in 1995. He told African leaders to ‘use
all their wisdom’. You too are a leader and I have no doubt that you are
going to put all your wisdom on duty.
The
time to fully utilize that wisdom is now. If you are interested in
having a positive influence on the rural economy and the livelihood of
the farmers who produce the food you eat, this is the time to for us to
say enough is enough.
This is the thing. I am inviting
you join the Garden to City Food buying Solution. You will not only
contribute to the welfare of the farmer and contribute to improving the
rural economy but save a great deal of your money. Money that ends up in
the pockets of exploitative markets at your expense and that of the
farmer
.
Together, those who are pretty serious about what
they eat and consider to join the club will enjoy the benefit of buying
better directly at reasonable prices directly from the source. This
solution is for a concerned person like me who knows that saving as
little as 25 per day for 365 days is enough to buy a goat end of year
party or sort out back to school shopping in January.
If
you are pretty serious about adjusting your food buying behavior this
solution is for you. It is an alternative to the traditional way of
bringing food to your kitchen. It is a baby who is promising to grow big
and better as the membership grows.
Keep watching this
space for more on the benefits and how we are going to go about it. Our
affiliate program is attractive and you should just be in to benefit
from the discount package that come with it.
Are you in? Send an email at gardentocity@gmail.com
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