Farmers turn to dumping sites for ‘fertiliser’ despite dangers

Mr Stephen Ondeje at a dumping site in Nyamware village in Suna East sub-County, Migori, on Sunday. [Caleb Kingwara, Standard]

A walk around Nyamware, in Suna East, Migori County reveals an emerging trend among farmers fearful of the high cost of fertilisers. With some deliberating quitting farming as a result of expensive farm inputs and low yields, farmers here have now turned to garbage in estates and shopping centres instead of fertiliser.

Almost all the farms in most homesteads are littered with all manner of decomposing urban domestic waste, including the non-biodegradable. However, in the garbage are crops that are growing and looking green and healthy.