Business Daily (Nairobi)
Solomon Mburu
23 April 2008
Horticultural farmers have been urged to improve standards for products sold in the local market.
According to the Horticultural Crops Development Authority, farmers have concentrated on improving standards for export crops and ignored those sold locally, accounting for 95 per cent of the total market share.
According to HCDA, local market accounted for Sh100 billion against the Sh43 billion that horticultural exports earned."Farmers should give more priority to the local market and improve standards since it accounts for 95 per cent of the total market," said Mr Jotham Ouko the general manager technical and advisory services at HCDA.
According to Mr Ouko, farmers have developed a wrong mentality that only consumers abroad need high quality products.
"Farmers believe that only consumers abroad require high quality products while our people do not," said Mr Ouko.
Kenyan horticultural farmers have extensively invested in improving the standards for export crops so as to penetrate European, American and Asian markets.
This has involved meeting stringent Eurogap, British Retailer Consortium BRC, Kenyagap, Kenya Bureau of Standards and HCDA standards so as to export their products.
This focus on export crops has caused farmers to overlook the local products.
leading to poor quality crops sold in the local market.
Due to this, the horticulture organization has been educating farmers on the need to improve standards for products for the local market.
Collins Otieno a horticultural officer with HCDA said that the organization has been meeting farmers and encouraging them to improve standards for the local market.
"We have been going round helping farmers to build their capacity for horticultural products for the local market," said Mr Otieno.
This involves applying the various good agricultural practices (GAPS) which are available in several codes of conduct for products sold in the local market.
They include the HCDA code of conduct and the Kenya Horticultural code of conduct set up by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics KEBS.
The codes seek to improve quality by ensuring optimum fertilizer and manure use for the crops.
The standards also prevent use of harmful chemicals and consumption of crops before their ready to consume date after spraying.
Safety of the environment, the farmers and their workers is also a quality requirement for horticultural crops.
HCDA has also been promoting the cultivation of formally ignored traditional crops.
These include vegetables and fruits such as amaranth, stinging nettles and black night shed.
The traditional vegetables have been slowly making their way into the market pushed by a continually health conscious consumer base.
Vegetables such as stinging nettles have been recommended by nutritionists for their high iron content.
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