The country could suffer pishori rice shortage over the next three months due to inadequate water supply at the Mwea Irrigation Scheme over the past two seasons.
The challenge, coupled with high prices of the farm inputs, has prompted the cost of rice to shoot from Sh120 to Sh180 per kilogramme.
Rice is the third locally consumed produce after maize and wheat and the most economically viable crop for most Kirinyaga county residents.
A spot check in most of the mega rice stores within Mwea town reveals that the produce has drastically dropped, with some stores going for days without replenishing their stock due limited, or no bulk supply from the farms.
Loise Njagi, a renowned rice trader and miller in Mwea town, is one of the affected traders who has been counting losses over the commodity’s shortage.
Njagi, who operates along Mwea-Embu highway, targets residents and motorists who ply the route. She also sells in bulk to her clientele who have a high demand for the commodity
The rice trader said her milling machinery is on the verge of coming to a grinding halt due to lack of customers who have incessantly been milling their harvested produce from her entity over the past years.
She said the remaining unprocessed stock can only take a day to mill, adding that most of them (traders) have opted to switch to other businesses up until the commodity’s quantity stabilises.
“Many of the residents are also not buying our rice for domestic use owing to the extremely high prices. In equal measures, our farmers too have nothing to supply to us as the water shortage crisis has badly hit the paddies,” Njagi said.
She now fears that the prices could go even higher up to December, which is the next harvesting season.
“Until the next harvest season, we regret that the prices will not come down any time soon. In fact, they could rise exponentially until the supply stabilises.”
Her sentiments were backed by another renowned local miller, Charles Njiru, who challenged the government to set up a rice fertiliser factory within Mwea so as to enable farmers purchase it at an affordable fee of Sh2,500.
“A rice fertiliser factory will be a great relief to rice farmers in Mwea as it will motivate the farmers to put more effort into their farming,” Njiru said.
He further urged the state to limit the amount of cheap imports so as to promote the locally grown produce.
“We want to appeal to the government to promote our farmers by reducing the imports and instead purchase our produce in large quantities," Njagi said.
"Our produce could easily be purchased by the government institutions so that our farmers can have a ready market and reduce post-harvest losses.”
Meshack Kariuki, a local farmer, said most farmers have become demoralised over the expensive state of rice farming .
“The past two seasons have been the most challenging because of the prolonged dry spell, high cost of labour and increased cost of farm inputs. As a result, the crop has not done well thus the current shortage,” he said.
Purity Muthoni, another rice trader, however said that all was not lost as the newly completed Thiba dam would come in handy and revolutionise their farming.
The dam is set to support two cropping seasons per year thus increasing rice production by over to folds up from the current 114,000 metric tonnes in the mega rice production scheme.
The reservoir would also support an extra 10,000 acres up from the current 25,000 acres which is under irrigation.
(edited by Amol Awuor)