Farmers within the Mwea Rice Irrigation scheme have continued to suffer huge losses following snail invasion on their rice fields.
The voracious pests have been wreaking havoc in the fields for a while now, since they appeared in the area, a few years ago.
They mainly target seedlings in rice nurseries.
“They have multiplied into millions within a very short period and, mostly feed on the newly planted seedlings,” said Francis Gichohi
The invertebrates which hide in the water-logged soil can damage an acre of rice seedlings within a day.
“I need about 14 labourers to plant an acre of land with each taking home sh400 per day. During the previous season, I planted three times after the snails devoured the seedlings. Imagine that loss. Who will compensate me?” he posed
Another farmer, Martha Nyambura says that farm input dealers are the only people benefiting from this challenge.
“There is no chemical that I have not tried to use. But still, there are no positive results,” She said.
They believe that the pests were introduced in their fields by unknown people.
“It’s said that these pests were introduced to feed on weed but it turned out the opposite when they began destroying our crops,” said Martha
They are calling on various research institutions to carry out research and establish ways to deal with the snails.
But besides the havoc wreaked by the shelled pests which have led to poor yields, low prices for paddy rice has forced farmers to contemplate ditching the once-lucrative rice farming.
The farmers are selling the commodity to private millers as well as business people between sh50 and sh60 per kilo.
The farmers had been promised a sh85 per kilogram of paddy rice by President Uhuru Kenyatta when he had visited the area last year.
“We are yet to benefit from that promise,” said Martha
She notes that most farmers have not sold their last season’s produce.
“We have rice harvest from about two previous planting seasons in our stores. We don’t know when we will sell all that rice especially given that the next season is approaching,” she said
The farmers are therefore calling on the government to intervene and solve some of the challenges they are currently facing.
“The government should adequately fund Co-operatives as well as Mwea Rice Mills under the National Irrigations Authority so that we can benefit from our sweat,” said Francis.
