The heavy rains that pounded Makueni County for the past three months have reduced crop production of maize and beans by 30%, the area County Crops Officer (CCO), Mr. Samuel Mburu, has said.
Mr. Mburu said the county will only produce 420,000 bags of maize planted on 100,800 acres, adding that 145,600 bags of beans will be realised from 43,680 acres of land.
“We had targeted to produce a total of 600,000 bags of maize from 144,000 acres planted with maize. Due to heavy rains, only 100,800 acres yielded 420,000 bags of maize this season,” said Mburu while speaking to KNA in his Wote office on Monday.
“In beans, we anticipated to harvest a total of 208,000 bags from 62,400 acres; however, the farmers produced 145,600 bags of beans, which is a reduction of 30%,” noted the County Crops Officer.
He revealed that the farmers who were affected most were along the Athi River and Kaiti area, where farms were submerged in water, besides soil erosion that negatively impacted production in the county.
“Many farms were submerged, and in other instances, the crops were washed away by surface water, besides the crop suffering from chlorosis disease, which led to poor yields, hence affecting food security,” posed Mburu.
However, the County Crops Officer revealed that the prices of cereals have not been affected since many farmers had food in the stores from last season.
In another development, Mburu disclosed that some farmers lost 30 solar panels to the floods that swept away some of the irrigation equipment in Mavindini ward in Kathozweni Subcounty.
He said the Katithi Micro Irrigation Project also lost sap tanks that are used to store water used for irrigation, hence negatively impacting the scheme.
However, he said that Agricultural Extension officers were on the ground to enlighten farmers on the right time to plant and the kind of fertiliser to apply to get better yields from their crops.
By Sophie Wambugu
