A public-private agribusiness consortium has secured a market for maize farmers in Kakamega county to sell their produce outside the country.
The deal will be the second by the Farm to Market Alliance after it helped maize farmers in Kakamega and Kitale to sell their produce to Rwanda two months ago through African Improved Food.
In the Rwanda maize deal, farmers sold their produce at Sh2,800 per 90kg bag against the Sh1,800 they were being offered locally.
Kakamega Agribusiness coordinator Monica Rapando said they have received another order for maize from Africa Improved Food (AIF) for the next harvest.
Rapando spoke in Kakamega town after farmers were trained on contractual farming by the Farm to Market Alliance through Kunza Network.
The organisation has so far trained 394 farmers in the county.
Rapando said the Cereals Growers Association and other partners like Syngenta, Bayer and seed companies have partnered to train maize farmers in conservation farming to boost maize production and lower the cost of production to benefit from pricing in emerging markets.
Simon Mwinzi of Participatory Approach Integrated Development said his organisation will partner with other players to train more farmers in conservation farming.
Farmer Laurence Mukabana said they were trained on how to boost production and increase income.
Rapando called on the county government to support farmers in forming groups and cooperatives to market their produce profitably.
The initiative will help maize farmers in Western and North Rift, the country’s food baskets, who have for long been exploited by middlemen during harvests. Brokers take advantage of post-harvest challenges farmers face and buy maize at throwaway prices.
Farm to Market Alliance is a consortium of six agri-focused organisations formed to make markets work better for farmers. It seeks to enable sustainable food systems through strengthening of markets to empower farmers to increase their yields, income, resilience and improve global food security.