By Malachi Motano

Vegetable farmers in Kiambu want the government to help them counter massive wastage that comes with the overproduction.

Samuel Gachira  is the chairman at Nyambare godown in Lari constituency “Farmers in the county grow cabbages, kale, spinach and broccoli and sell them daily at godowns at Soko Mjinga, Kinale, Kimende and Nyambare trading centres.”

He says the those go-downs are flooded with vegetables almost every day and between 20 or 25 lorries transport vegetables from the constituency to different markets in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi and even Malindi,” he said.

He says whereas production rises when it rains and dries and declines when it rains, the demand in urban areas remains and people struggle to get the vegetables.

According to the areas Member of Parliament (Lari MP) Jonah Mburu, farmers end up in selling their produce at throwaway prices, due to overproduction and poor markets.

The MP says a times, the farmers complain of poor sales of Sukuma wiki whereby a bag costs Sh100 and at times Sh. 1,500.

He says, “Sometimes a cabbage sells for just Sh2 on a farm, meaning there’s no profit. When the market is not working, they harvest all these Sukuma, cabbages and spinach and feed them to domestic animals. This is a lot of wastage, and we need to help them conserve and save our farmers.”

The legislator therefore urged Kiambu government to assist vegetable farmers to reduce the wastage caused by overproduction.

He appealed to the Agriculture ministry to come up with a programme of drying, preserving and packaging vegetable products as a strategy to protect farmers.

Mburu. “If we don’t protect farmers from middlemen, we might frustrate them. We need a channel where they can benefit and be selling their farm produces at an attractive price no matter the weather.”