Pig farmers in parts of Nakuru County are crying foul over a diminishing market for their animals and a sharp rise in prices of animal feeds.
According to the farmers, the prices of the animals had also dropped by over 50 per cent, and the cost of feeds had shot up by a similar margin since last year. Following the impasse, some farmers have opted to stop rearing the pigs due to the rising cost of production pushed up by the cost of electricity and raw material for the feeds.
This comes barely a week after the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) warned that it would take a couple of years for the agriculture sector to fully recover from the effects of the pandemic. The pandemic saw hotels shut down, import and export of farm inputs banned, and borders closed.
Poultry farmers have also been affected due to an influx of cheap eggs from neighbouring countries. According to one of the farmers, Mary Njeri from Lanet, their farms were filled with overgrown pigs and piglets due to the current crisis.
She said the problem started after the pandemic hit, leading to the closure of hotels. This pushed the prices down, with tens of traders shying away from buying the animals from the farmers.
“Our problem started a couple of weeks after Covid-19 was reported in the country, and since then, we have never recovered,” she said.
She said the prices of 1Kg of pork had dropped from Sh350 to Sh200 despite the rising cost of animal feeds. “Many farmers are keen to do away with the current lot so that they can shift to something else because rearing pigs is unproductive,” she said.
mgitonga@standardmedia.co.ke
