Growing maize in less than 20 acres of land unprofitable, says PS
A maize plantation in Rongai, Nakuru County. Agriculture PS Prof Hamadi Boga has told farmers growing maize in less than 20 acres to diversify and grow other crops for wealth creation.
What you need to know:
- Agriculture PS Hamadi Boga observed that each part of Kenya has a crop of high value and is capable creating wealth if supported by the national and county governments.
He urged farmers to grow high value crops that are suitable such as cassava, sorghum, millet instead of over relying on maize.
Farmers with less than 20 acres of land should not grow maize for commercial purposes since this is not profitable, Agriculture Principal Secretary Hamadi Boga has said.
Prof Boga, who said that this is unprofitable, also announced that his ministry was committed to ensuring farmers grow crops that are suitable to their regions instead of over relying on maize farming.
“Only five per cent of Kenyan soil is suitable for maize growing,” said Prof Boga on Wednesday.
The PS observed that each part of Kenya has a crop of high value and is capable creating wealth if supported by the national and county governments.
He added: “In Kilifi, I see fields of stunted maize and yet a lot of efforts have been put by farmers, this is impoverishing these farmers.”
Prof Boga’s statement comes at a time when Kenya Agricultural Research and Livestock Organisation has developed more than 300 maize varieties for various ecological zones in the country.
“There is a need for dialogue with small holder farmers so that they can stop growing maize on five or 10 acres and make very little money because of the low yields,” said the PS.
He urged farmers to grow high value crops that are suitable such as cassava, sorghum, millet instead of over relying on maize.
“We need to activate our seeds system to support all these other enterprises which can still replace maize in terms of starch requirements,” he added.
The PS said the ministry is unable to drive its commercialisation agenda when many smallholder farmers grow maize instead of other crops that could earn them good returns.
“Our biggest objective is to increase the income of smallholder farmer but we are not going to achieve that with maize. We need a radical shift to move to other crops that would give our smallholder farmers good money.”
He said the county governments investments based on subsidies programme involving seeds, fertilisers, and agro chemicals for maize production must shift to irish potatoes, coffee, rice and other crops.
“Counties should not condemn the residents to poverty by supporting the growth of maize.”
“There is no point of growing maize in counties such as Makueni or Meru when the harvests end up having aflatoxin,” said the PS.
The PS revealed that even in areas regarded as Kenya’s maize baskets including Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, Bomet and others were facing the problem of land sub divisions, degradation and soil acidity, because of growing maize for many years.
The government has withdrawn subsidised fertilisers programme in recent reforms announced by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya.
The government has also stopped buying maize from farmers even as maize production in the country declined from 44 million to 33 million bags last season.
