Millions Costly profitless Tomato Onions of Loitoktok

Millions Costly profitless Tomato Onions of Loitoktok

By Christine Musa

 

Tomato and Onions farmers in Kajiado are crying foul over what they term as massive exploitations by middlemen seeing farmers lose millions out of their produce every harvest season.

 

The large scale farmers from Rombo, Loitoktok that serve as Kajiado food basket are worried saying their farming is not paying but benefiting a few individuals who show up as customers.

 

The farmers who take advantage of favorable climate from the nearby Kilimanjaro  mountain claim they has been losing millions to the unscrupulous brokers colluding with traders to the chagrin of local farmers who have no ready market for their produce.

 

Here, tomatoes are packed into wooden boxes and on top five more buckets added to what they call ‘`Tarbo package’ with the farmer earning less than ksh 1,000.

The Tarbo package of tomatoes carries over 150kgs of tomatoes from the ordinary 60kgs that the flat ordinary wooden box should carry.

 

Farmers claim they are being exploited and the county government denied the much needed revenue from cess charges.

“In a good season for an acre of land we harvest up to 20,000kgs of tomatoes per acre. However the cost of nurturing the crop is becoming expensive due to exploitation by brokers working in cahoots with traders to oppress us as farmers. We use very expensive fertilizers and herbicides yet traders want to purchase our produce at a throw away price. Traders throng farms and take advantage of illiterate farmers more by packaging excess tomatoes,’’said John Memusi.

 

The farmers claim that due to lack of a ready market they have to abide by the traders price despite being glare exploitation or else they produce will go bad.

 

“If we can get a tomato sauce production unit within our region it will save us the ordeal of counting losses all the time during the harvest season. Once tomatoes are ripe we have no option but to sell at throw away prices as they cannot last for long,’’said Agnes Saruni a farmer.

 

Onion market is another thorny issue for farmers who say brokers have introduced extra-large nets to steal from farmers. The brokers are said to buy in bulky from farmers paying peanuts then later repackage the same produce.

“We call on the concerned stakeholders to intervene in having standard nets for tomato packaging. Traders and brokers have introduced extra-large packaging nets turning onion business to a hub of losses,’’farmers cry.

Some farmers claim they children have dropped out of school due to lack of school fees as the crop they depend no longer yield profits.

 

Three years ago the county assembly of Kajiado passed a law regulating the packaging of farmer produces but the regulation is yet to be effected.

 

While meeting the farmers recently after majority threatened to pull out of farming, Kajiado governor Joseph Ole lenku directed all enforcing officers manning road blocks to crack the whip on traders oppressing farmers.

 

Lenku said his government will protect farmers by all means issuing a stern warning to county enforcement officers to take charge in safeguarding farmers by ensuring they oversee packaging of farmers produce from the farm through to road blocks.

 

“Anybody who comes between Lenku and farmers welfare for their selfish interest will not be spared from facing the wrath of law. County enforcement officers have to take control and ensure recommended packaging and the outcome will be reflected in Cess collected. Those engaged in this crook practice are stealing from the farmers and the county government and must be brought to book,’’said the county chief.

 

Loitoktok in Kajiado south sub county is among the largest producer of tomatoes and onions producer in the country.