Ndengu or Pojo as popularly known happens to be a favourite cereals to most. not known to many, green grams can be a cash crop for our Kitui friends. The production of Ndengu surpassed farmers and everyone expectation after farmers decided to adopt new farming techniques, thanks to a project dubbed Ndengu Revolution.
A seed subsidy was given to Kitui residents under Ndengu revolution project, farmers were also promised ready market for their harvest in Asia. This aimed at taking care of the middlemen who have always exploited farmers due to lack of information on the available market, price panicks and fear of post harvest losses.
Farmers were particularly amazed by the bumper harvest of Ndengu. Most semi arid areas are believed to be very unproductive with little agricultural output. But with the current situation in terms of little agriculture land availability especially in high potential areas, seems like agriculture is moving towards the semi arid areas.
Kenyas ndengu is the best in the world and it does well in the semi arid areas. Green grams can revamp the food security of the often hunger stricken areas. Better still, its sets to boost the poor farmers income.
Farmers have been selling their produce at the low price given to them by middlemen in the fear that they might miss out the alleged small market opportunity.
Market opportunities include local market yet to be satisfied and Asian markets have huge demand for this crop.
Suggested solutions to curb exploitation from middlemen
There is an appeal to the Government to include Green grams in the food reserves. It will be a good move to include the ndengu in our strategic food reserve basket as this will save farmers the agony of relying on uncertain export market. This will also boost income of many farmers from semi arid areas.
Help farmers deal with the post-harvest losses. Green grams are highly prone to wevils and farmers don't have proper storage for their harvest. Due to this problem they hurriedly sell their produce to middlemen avoiding post harvest losses.
Impose an import ban on the crop. It has bees revealed that Kenya is a net importer of green grams. The domestic demand is yet to be satisfied with the current levels of production. Once such minimal policy reforms are made, the agony of farmers due to lack of market will be taken care of and there will be no need to look for foreign market.
Ensure competitiveness in the production of the protein rich crop. High cost of production in Kenya encourages illegal imports since trader finds an opportunity to buy at cheaper prices from the neighbors and sell at higher price. It is therefore important to ensure the food crop compete fairly in the market and wont cost higher than that of neighbors.
