The reason why Jamaican fruit was unable to compete is EXACTLY the same reason we can never compete.
Small scale farmers can never compete with large scale ones.Ever.
Which is why we need to shift away from it the same way the Europeans did during the Agricultural Revolution.
Comprehension mieeennn
Why not deal with the basics first e.g. stop illegal dumping of cheap foods and commodities e.g the crap sugar from Brazil and elsewhere. Dumping destroys agriculture and industries. There was recent talk of Chinese bringing their cheap fish to Kenya, why is that while our fishermen suffer.
Then build good markets and road networks for farmers. Potatoes shouldn’t rot away in Laikipia while someone else in Kenya needs them but there are poor roads in the farmlands! VALUE ADDITION practices should be enhanced to reduce wastage and put more money in the farmers pocket. Value addition and refrigeration practices would also remove the middle men vampires. Basic stuff really.
We should also have factories for kawaida farm inputs… why import fertilizer or basic pesticides and we have researchers and scientists in Kenya? The Israels the Netherlands they got ahead because they first paid heed to the basics. Listening to the farmer not squashing the farmer.
When the brother of the leader of the nation is accused of shipping or dumping cheap sugar from Brazil into the country, you are pretty much doomed. And the main Indian culprit doing it, has very tight business ties to the first family to a point where he gets state appointments to run sugar and paper factories… hakuna mahali mtaenda as a nation.
When the ruler of the land has an absolute monopoly in milk production and poultry as well… complete conflict of interest and insider information, there can be no reforms in the industry nor a level playing field. He owns the market, he sets the prices, he controls the product.
The farm he gave to Israelis recently is clearly more of his personal stake. The guy has interests even in horticulture. His family and the Mois practically call the shots. Sio chai sio coffee…
Land size does not bring efficiency but economies of scale, and therefore high gains in profit. Size should not be the issue if our farmers can form co-operatives and act as one large farm owned by all.
What our farmers lack, is govt support in terms of machinery, proper training and guidance on what to produce and when, and marketing. National govt can help us to find market and advertise our produce just like it does in tourism. Govt should also avoid those policies that increase the cost of production. County govts can have tractors that farmers can hire cheaply, see that we have no idle land, make sure famers have access to right seeds and fertilizers etc. We just need to take agriculture seriously
govt. walijaribu sana even with extension officers especially in the govt. of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Moi came in and killed all the vision and work. Hakufuata nyayo!
Land errosion ndio hio. Rivers dried up. Mau ndio hio grabbed by the Moi regime. etcetera.
Refer to IMF Template a.k.a SAP’s…basically they advocate for nil/reduced govt spending on socio-economic activities such as public health, agric extension officers, education etc.
Esp in the early 90s I.M.F had this man by his balls.
And hate them or love them the colonial settler assholes walikuwa wakulima no nonsense. The level of soil conservation done in Central Kenya was state of the art. And the plan was for agricultural land to remain communal. Kenya had serious potential to be a bread basket like Zimbabwe or New Zealand at the time.
But willing buyer willing seller ndio huyo akakuja… mambo ya soil conservation ndio hio gone. No one even remembers where the mzungu grew his vineyards… oh yes Kenya had planned farming sio maize kila mahali na masukuma wiki na vitunguu space ikibaki.
enyewe watu walikuwa retrenched sana. Na sio kitu ingine corruption tu. If he ran the country properly would he have needed the IMF loans?
I consider those fired as the best educated Kenyan generation. Those 1960s kids had very good technical training. Ilipotea yote. wangepeleka Kenya mbele sana.
sasa dim-eyed P1 teacher anajua nini ? pia unaona yule alienda kumumunya Gilbeys huko majuu vile hajui kuendesha Meli hii.
We have tried this and it has largely failed. People prefer having their own plots and that mentality will never be purged.Forced collectivization…well, we saw the results in China, the USSR and Tanzania
Question is, why is Brazillian Sugar cheap in the first place???
Potatoes rot away in Laikipia because it is either not worth it to transport them from there because one can get cheaper alternatives(read, Moshi in Tanzania) as Kenyan potatoes are too expensive(however, most potatoes are expensive not because they come from small scale farms, they actually mostly come from medium sized ones, but the presence of middlemen has made them expensive).
We cannot make cheap fertilizer because we do not have the natural ingredients to make cheap fertilizer.Uganda and Tanzania do though.
We have researchers and scientists…Errm.No we no longer do.The old generation of KARI scientists are retiring and they are not being replaced.
The Netherlands got the basics first.They started by throwing out all small scale farmers out of the countryside to either go work in factories or immigrate to the United States(New York around Sleepy Hollow and later the area that is today Los Angeles) to establish large farms there during the Agricultural Revolution.
mdogo wake akichukua enyewe… sijui.
But si hata Brazil niliona juzi large scale farmers wanalia pia. And lets not forget the damage to environment that large scale farming brings. Monsanto and their chemicals and seeds being culprit numero uno.There’s still extreme inequality in Brazil as well as poverty despite the large scale farming.
And worse still… there is hunger and under nourishment in Brazil! Food isn’t cheap as one would expect. The poor in Brazil eat just as bad as 3rd world folks. Malnourished, sickly kids etc.
Ukienda U.S. its accusations of slave labour all over the place especially in Haawai. These large farms have drained the lakes. And oil fracking is destroying the remaining underground aquifers! Meanwhile Trump wants the cheap Mexican slaves/farm labourers to go back home.
The U.S annexed some south American countries like Hondurus for offshore farming hence the name Banana republics. Today those countries akina Hondurus, Nicaragua hawataki ujinga. Wamemea pembe. Wamechoka kutumiwa. They want to choose their own course.
So really there’s no one step 100% solution in Agriculture.
Hio large scale farming kwanza maji imekuwa issue everywhere in every country! Hata Cape Town! Water is scarce! Kule Holland with this European drought the govt. stopped all irrigation! Same in all European countries affected by the drought.
Same story in Australia. These droughts are changing everything. Halafu ikinyesha ni kama vita.
In the U.S. the youth are going small scale with some jobless lads and girls setting up rudimentary farms in abandoned cities/states like Detroit. Hata Nigeria some youths have started small intensive farms and livestock keeping unlike their oil loving parents.
Large scale is great but sio mchezo. Uhuru si amejaribu akaona anyamaze na awachane with the Galana Kulalu project? Sasa ati anapatia Jews nchi yetu walime.
Me I imagine had he given that land to poor youths (instead of wasting money on NYS) vijana wajaribu yao yote in small leased parcels haikosi ingezaa matokeo. But to each his own. Meli ni yake.
I like what Twiga Ltd is doing in Kenya. Offering ready market at predictable price to farmers and creating a reliable distribution network to retailers in urban areas.
It’s a shame an American had to come do this for us here.