Nairobi — A cereal growers association wants the government to set up storage and drying facilities countrywide to stem waste of grain produce.

It said farmers were incurring heavy losses due to lack of proper storage facilities especially during harvesting period. The Cereals Growers Association chief executive David Nyameino said the government should increase its investment in agriculture to empower farmers through capacity building programmes.

"Any investment that Kenya puts into the agricultural sector should be focused on improvement of both storage and drying facilities to curb the huge loss of farm produce," said Mr Nyameino.

He said lack of dryers in most buying centres had forced farmers to waste a lot of time and labour drying their maize in the sun. He urged maize farmers to form groups to benefit from services offered by World Food Programme and United States Agency for International Development. He spoke in Trans Mara West District.