Agriculture has been Africa’s backbone. Most African countries depend majorly on agricultural products that are produced within the continent.
Kenya, being among the African countries cannot be excluded from these countries that their citizens depend greatly on agriculture.
Agriculture being the activity of growing of crops and keeping of animals has been a key pillar in many people’s lives for decades.
Western region of Kenya, including the counties of Bungoma, Vihiga, Busia and Kakamega have been termed as the heartbeat of this nation as the residents of these Counties practice crop farming and also livestock keeping on large scale basis.
Most farmers from the region have been faced by great challenges that have made them give up on crop production. High prices of farm inputs like the fertilizer and other chemicals became a threat to maize farmers, among other challenges that are inevitable. Maize cost of production demoralized most of the crop’s producers hiking the price of maize flour on the Kenyan market.
Tomato growing for instance is being faced by a bigger challenge currently as the crop whither and dries up from an unknown disease. The farmers that practice tomato growing have been left in dilemma not knowing what to do to their crops.
Most farmers that spoke to West Media Limited said that they have been looking for a lasting solution to the tomato crop disease but unfortunately their efforts bore no fruits.
It is predicted that tomato prices will hike up greatly in the near future due to the crop’s product unavailability on the market.
The government through the Ministry of Agriculture should intervene and come up with a long lasting solution to all the challenges that face the farmers in the country.
By Peter Musaba
