Maize farmers from Kakamega County have finally been relieved the burden of selling their produce at throw away prices after a private organization known as Farm to Market Alliance secured a market for them to sell their produce outside the country from next year.
The deal will be the second of its kind by the organization after helping maize farmers in Kakamega and Kitale sell their crops to Rwanda two months ago through African Improved Food.
Kakamega Agri-business coordinator Mrs Monica Rapando of African Improved Food has placed another order for maize for the next harvest after being satisfied with the quality of maize sold to the organization. She said in October this year the organization requested for 54 metric tonnes in Rwanda but local maize farmers only parted with 25 tonnes because they insisted on a cash first deal.
Mrs. Rapando, while speaking to reporters in Kakamega town appealed to the Kakamega County government to mobilize more farmers and urge them to form groups and later cooperatives to market their produce profitably. She said next year Farm to Market alliance will recruit other groups of farmers to train and urged those who have been trained to pass the expertise to others. Currently there are 394 farmers from the County that the organization has trained through Kiza network community and she said the Kakamega graduates will increase the number of small scale farmers who have benefited the programme.
Her sentiments were a official, Mr. Simon Mwinzi, who said the organization will join other partners of Farm to Market Alliance to train more farmers in conservation farming. He hailed the Rwanda maize deal and said more markets are emerging for maize, soya beans and sorghums.
A farmer who graduated in the first training, Mr. Laurence Mukabana, hailed the skills they had been given and external market for maize saying they will boost maize production and the income of local farmers. Currently maize farmers in the country are facing a big problem when it comes to selling their crops after the harvest season.
