Mwea: Desperate rice farmers resort to trial-and-error methods as snails multiply rapidly
By Richard Mugo, September 21, 2025Mwea rice farmers have resorted to gathering apple snails from their rice fields and disposing of them onto the on-farm roads as a way of controlling the ravenous pest.
This is after most pesticides were applied in the fields in a bid to control the stubborn pest that has continued to wreak havoc on the farms, leaving farmers counting losses.
Farmers in the largest rice scheme in Kenya allege that the pest was introduced in the area about five years ago by crop and pest researchers as a weed control method on the farms.
However, after the research failed, the project was abandoned, leaving the apple snails behind.
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They later multiplied rapidly into large numbers as they moved in silence to invade the vast rice scheme.
“They were introduced in the Tebere unit area before spreading into the rest of the farms. There is no place in Mwea where you can go and fail to spot an apple snail,” said John Munene, a rice farmer.
The snails begin attacking rice seedlings at the nursery beds as well as after transplanting into the farms.
In order to get an adequate number of seedlings to grow on an acre of land, a farmer is required to sow about 25 kg of rice seeds but with the snails feeding, the farmers have been forced to increase the amount of seeds sown.
“We sow 25kgs of seeds in the nursery bed and the seedlings are enough to plant an acre of rice. We have, however, been forced to adjust the amount to 40 kg, hoping that at least there will be enough left to plant in an acre after the snails have taken their share,” Munene said, while adding that 1 kg of rice seeds retails at around sh150.
The snails also target the newly planted seedlings.
“They will continue feeding on the young plants once transplanted,” he said.
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The farmers have to drain the water from the rice field since the apple snails can only survive in wetlands.
The draining of the water from the farms, however, is not the best way to grow rice which does well in flooded fields.
“Once you transplant, you are forced to drain the farm immediately since the snail cannot survive in dry land; otherwise, they will continue to feed on the delicate young crops,” said Joseph Kamau, another farmer.
The application of a lot of the chemicals used in pest control in the past has not produced positive results.
There is a time the government supplied the rice farmers with pesticides believed to help mitigate the problem, but they proved futile.
Now the farmers have resorted to a trial and error method in their attempt to get the right pesticide to use in controlling the apple snail that is continuing to destroy the crop across the scheme.
“Every time we complain about the pest, a new chemical is brought around for trials. The results are all the same. We are now seeking stronger chemicals to apply, but we are advised that most of them are harmful to our health,” said Pius Njogu, a rice farmer.
They have also turned to applying the cultural method of gathering and disposing of the snails in dry lands, like roads and other places.
“Sometimes you have to employ people who go to the fields carrying containers to gather and put the snails in for disposal. A single person is paid around Ksh500, that means if you employ 10 people, you will require Ksh5,000. And most farmers cannot afford such an amount, so they will find somewhere or someone to borrow from,” Njogu said.
This method of gathering and disposing is not the best, as the farmers say it is expensive and not environmentally friendly, since they are disposed of in large numbers.
“In a bid to dispose them on the roads but then they would be stinking of the rotting snails,” said Peter Njogu, another rice farmer.
The farmers are calling on the government to intervene to save the dire situation they are in.
“When the pesticide provided by the government failed, they have never returned or given as direction even we gave them the feedback about the ineffectiveness of pesticide they supplied. We the urge the government to conduct more researches on how to eliminate the snails,” He said.