The ordinary Kenyans are people who struggle a lot to make ends meet.
Let us take an example of a farmer. The farmer spends a lot of resources of labour, inputs and time to plant his crops such as Irish potatoes, maize, beans or even tomatoes.
After harvest, the farmer’s efforts are not appreciated or compensated. The middlemen pay peanuts to acquire farm outputs.
Even transporting farm produce from the farm to the market is an uphill task. Serious farmers need at least a pick up truck to ease their transport problems.
These are issues I have experienced first hand during my two years in farming.
I have now known what needs to be done. I won’t be producing to enrich the middle man. NO. I will look for a solution on the next two years.
I need to invest on a truck, preferable a 4WD with good ground clearance. This locomotive will be transporting farm inputs and produce to and from the market.
For this goal I will not relent. I have some vehicles in mind. A Mitsubishi Fuso or Isuzu light weight truck (4WD) preferably. If that is not possible, An Isuzu DMAX pick-up or Toyota Hilux 4WD can do the magic.
Just to illustrate the kind of challenges farmers face, they are charged at every stage for transporting their luggage.
Today I made a mistake and took 32 kilos of maize/corn to G4S Kenya Mobile office located in front of Glanis Supermarket in Nakuru. They weighed the bag of maize and told me that I need to pay KES 1,860 or there about. The value of the luggage is estimated to be KES 1,500. I did not pay, I carried my luggage to Mololine company where I paid KES 300. That was better off compared to the exhobitant cost at the previous company. Therefore, I concluded that G4S is not farmer friendly at all.
It is raining cats and dogs in Nakuru as I wrote this article. I notice that vehicles aren’t speeding along the Nakuru-Nairobi highways as they usually do. Rain serves as a speed governor.
For farming to make lots of sense, you have to mechanize and invest on trucks for quick and seamless delivery of products to the market.
Poor drainage is experienced on some of the roads in Nakuru County. Water floods on the roads making it dangerous for motorists and pedestrians. The situation is more complicated considering that the roads are not suitable for non-motorized users such as bicycle riders and pedestrians.
High fuel costs has a negative impact on farmers in many ways. Maize farmers for instance, use fuel on their transport vehicles and the extra cost is pushed to the final consumer. However, farmers do not benefit at all.
