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| Miraa |
After suffering due to poor prices, miraa and muguka farmers in Mt Kenya East now hope for better returns after formation of the national pricing committee.
The nine-member committee will be domiciled at the Agricultural and Food Authority (AFA) and will comprise of representatives from Ministries of Agriculture and Trade and miraa and muguka associations in the counties.
James Mithika has been appointed chairperson of the national pricing committee.
The committee will be reporting to Agriculture Cabinet Secretary and will look into the pricing of miraa and muguka, predominantly grown in Meru and Embu counties.
Farmers have been complaining of low prices despite investing heavily in tilling, soil treatment, pruning and spraying of the crops.
With 125,000 households in Igembe, Meru county, growing miraa, an estimated 625,000 people in that region depend on the crop for livelihood, but poor prices have been a major source of frustration for the community.
Mithika revealed that the committee will be mandated to ensure favourable prices of miraa and muguka.
“This committee was formed after miraa and muguka farmers lamented poor prices for a long time. The prices for the two continue to drop. We want the development of the two crops to be enhanced,” he said.
“Because they are scheduled crops we must look into the matter of pricing. The mandate we have been given is to put in place measures and targets to ensure farmers get profits in their pockets, because you cannot talk of a cash crop when you do not determine the price, after incurring production, transportation and other costs,” he said.
Mithika explained that in order to determine the pricing, the committee will visit the counties to investigate and calculate the cost of production of a unit of the two crops.
“So that we can we can come up with legal price determination which we will urge the government to enforce, for farmers to earn profits,” he said.
He said the committee will also be tasked with looking for new markets for the crops.
“Currently we have only one external market, Somalia which we depend on. It is the responsibility of this committee to search for new markets, so that we can push more exports for improved prices for our farmers,” he said.
Mithika noted that miraa export to Somalia market was not enough to meet the demand, hence the need to increase volumes.
“There are only five exporters licensed to airlift miraa to Somalia. They are not able to satisfy the demand. Somalia has capacity to consume between 50 and 60 tons daily. The five are stuck at between five and 10 tons. As a committee we want more exporters licensed to airlift it to Somalia,” he said.
He proposed that in order to make more sales, miraa and muguka should also be taken to Somalia by road.
“There is no law dictating that the only way to supply to Somalia is by air. It will be our duty as a committee to push the national government to license our people to also transport it by road and sea and air for those with capacity. If we do that we will create more sales,” he said.
“We see a very bright future in the trade of miraa and muguka sub sector,” he said.
Mithika said the idea was to enable farmers to break even and get value for their sweat.
By Phares Mutembei