Theft of crops mainly, fruits, vegetables and maize from farms has been identified as a deterrent and setback among small scale farmers in Nakuru County.
The Chairman of South Rift Farmers’ Association Justus Monda said majority of the small scale farmers lack security for their crops and due to increased insecurity in the rural areas, some of them lose a lot of their produce to theft.
Mr Monda said traditionally a hungry person was allowed by society to pluck a few maize cobs or vegetables from another person’s farm but regretted that nowadays it was common for a maize farmer to wake up in the morning and find a large part of their maize crop had been harvested and whenever they report to the chiefs and police no step is taken.
He added that majority of their members cannot afford to employ watchmen or install CCTV cameras like the large scale farmers due to the huge costs involved that were beyond their reach.
While speaking to KNA in Nakuru town he said high demand of food stuffs in urban areas had contributed to increased insecurity at farms and a number of their members were now storing maize inside their houses.
The Chairman noted that theft of fruits such as bananas, goose berries and passion fruits had soared alarmingly and discouraged farmers from increasing their acreage for fruit farming.
By Veronica Bosibori
