KENYA: Pyrethrum farmers in Nakuru and Nyandarua counties recall with nostalgia days when the crop was their mainstay.
The good old days are now gone and the changed fortunes are evident as one traverses the crop-growing areas of Nyandarua, Naivasha, Kuresoi and Molo.
Disillusionment in pyrethrum farming set in due to lack of payment for deliveries and most farmers opted to uproot the crop for other more viable activities.
In the 1980s, pyrethrum was ranked the sixth foreign exchange earner after tea, horticulture, tourism, coffee and sisal and was the lifeline of many residents especially in Kuresoi, Naivasha, Nyandarua and Molo.
But the number of farmers growing pyrethrum dropped from 200,000 in the 1980s to about 10,000 currently.
Samuel Kihiu, a spokesman for pyrethrum farmers, said mismanagement of the sector is to blame for the woes facing the sub-sector at the moment.
“During the good old days, 15,000 metric tonnes of pyrethrum were produced in the country but this has now gone down to less than 700 metric tonnes,” he added.
Mr Kihiu, who at one time served as a director at the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya (PBK), said Nakuru County has the capacity to produce 50 per cent of the total pyrethrum production in the country.
“It was for many years the lifeline of most farmers in Nakuru and with the devolved government we expected the sector to be revived to benefit farmers in the county,” he said.
The PBK has for years been blamed by farmers for woes bedevilling the sector.
The decline in pyrethrum production has been attributed to non-payment for delivered flowers.
Kihiu said demand for pyrethrum is still high on the international market and farmers in the county should not despair. There is light at the end of the tunnel as the process of liberalising the sector is eagerly awaited.
County governments keen to capitalise on renewed high demand for the crop, create employment and generate more revenue have also joined the effort to revive the sector.
For residents of Kuresoi, Eburru, Molo, and Naivasha, revival of the sector is their key concern under the devolved government.
Isaac Kariuki, a farmer in Molo, recalls days when PBK used to pay them at the end of every month adding that it is a total shame farmers are now forced to sell the commodity to brokers at Sh100 per kilogramme.
Mr Kariuki said he had uprooted the crop and left just a few plants hoping that the sector would be revived.
“We sell our produce to brokers who pay us cash. Government officials should be ashamed for letting one of the most lucrative sectors to die,” he said. The farmers accused the Government of having forgotten them and cited the Sh1 billion recently allocated to Mumias Sugar Company to bail out the ailing sugar firm.
“The Government is so committed to reviving the sugar industry but we are are worried it is letting us down, bearing in mind we used to control the economy when pyrethrum was vibrant," says Henry Kariuki from Turi.
