East African Business Week (Kampala)
Samuel Otieno
17 March 2008
Nairobi — As Kenya reels back towards recovery from post election violence, fear is ripe that some of the sectors perceived to be the backbone of the economy might not recover soon even as a report indicates steady growth of prices of food and agricultural products.
Stakeholders in the industry say the country's optimum yield of agricultural produce may not be average after farmers fled from their farms for fear of being attacked by the local community during the violence.
Nyanza Provincial director of Agriculture, Mr. Otieno Owiro says the region may not produce even half of its optimum yield this year owing to lack of preparations for the field and the gig cost of farm inputs.
Preparation of fields for the planting season, which normally takes place between February and March, is yet to kick off, Nyanza Kenya federation of agricultural produce Wilfred Nyamula said that the delay has been occasioned by high cost of fuel and transport problems to most of the agricultural produce.
He says that farmers lost a fortune during the post election violence and were unable to sell their produce to enable them, purchase farm inputs which are now sold at very high prices.
The region alone is producing over 5 million bags of maize annually and a similar amount of Beans per annum. Prices of the commodity in the region have gone up from between Shs900 and Shs1200 per 90 kilogram bag to between Sh1, 600 and Sh2, 400.
The increase in prices has been attributed to high transport cost occasioned by high fuel prices in most of the petrol station within the region. Farmers have now been forced to pass on the increasing costs to traders who have increased prices of most commodities in the town.
One kilogram of passion fruits has raised to Sh100 (US$1.5) from Sh40 (US$ 6 cents). Consumers now have to pay Sh110 (slightly over $1.5) for a three-kilogram water melon fruit, compared to Sh60 about ($ 7 cents) previously.
Traders fear that the situation could worsen if prices of fuel and other consumer goods are not are not tamed.
"I used to make up to Shs.500 ($7.5) profit from the sale of passion fruits daily, but now I go home with only Shs200," said Joab Ochuodho a fruit seller in Kisumu.
He says high transport costs have pushed up the buying price of fruits from distributors thus leading to a decrease in the amount bought by most traders.
Uganda supplies most fruits to the lakeside town, but has recently experienced a surge in domestic demand.
The East African Grain Council (EAGC) projects that grain prices in East Africa are expected to rise as the stock position gets tighter in Kenya, following the violence.
A report by the food crisis prevention network FCPN, distributed by the famine early warning system indicates that shortage of cereals was imminent in Kenya.
"The food and nutritional situation could rapidly deteriorate in some areas of the region especially with the possible early arrival of the lean period if this price hike situation continues", the FCPN briefing note, released last week said.
Rising prices for basic commodities mean WFP needs 30 percent more money this year to feed the same number of beneficiaries.
In addition, the National Cereals and Produce Board stores in some parts of the province were vandalized, constraining release of strategic reserves to distributors.
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