Frost destroys crop worth millions in Nakuru County
The food situation in Nakuru County is getting worse with maize farmers now counting losses running into millions of shillings due to the crop failure caused by frost.
As a result, maize worth millions of shillings has been reduced to waste at a time when consumers are grappling with the high prices of maize flour.
The situation has been worsened by the harsh weather conditions and the high prices of farm inputs, mainly fertilizers and chemicals.
This comes a couple of days after the Agricultural Employers Association (AEA) warned of a rise in the prices of food due to the harsh weather conditions.
According to John Kamanja, an extension officer with the Ministry of Agriculture, the lower regions of the county were the most affected by the frost.
He said that crops affected by the cold weather phenomena had no chance of producing and called on farmers to uproot and feed the crop to livestock.
Kamanja challenged affected farmers to go for beans during the short rains so that they could recoup part of their losses and get a meal on their table.
One of the affected farmers Jane Ng’ang’a said that in a normal season she would get an average of 40 bags but the frost had adversely affected her produce.
The farmer from Lanet area projected that she would harvest around two bags adding that farming was becoming a challenge by the day.
This was echoed by Pastor Peter Ndung’u who said that they planted late due to the delayed rains adding that the crop failure spelt doom for consumers.
The farmer said that many maize farmers were counting huge losses due to the frost, the drought and the invasive weeds which had led to crop failure in nearly the whole county.