Narok wheat farmers incur losses as birds invade

Peter Leshan and KNA

Thousands of quelea birds have destroyed hundreds of acres of wheat in Narok, the country’s largest producer of the grain.

The birds which have migrated to the area from Lake Natron in Tanzania where they bred, according to farmers, have so far destroyed more than 500 acres of the crop in Nkareta, Nkoben,Llower Melili, Nairegi-Enkare and Ntulele areas.

The crops, they said yesterday were mature for harvesting and accused Agriculture ministry of failing to monitor the birds’ movements and inaction. Previously, they said, the ministry used to alert them of the destructive birds movements and deploy planes to kill them. “Had the ministry acted before, we could not have incurred loses,” said Erisha Kuluo, Narok Farmers Association secretary.

He said the local agriculture office has no chemicals for killing the birds, claiming that even planes from the Ministry’s Crop Protection Unit have not been deployed to the area to kill them. “Ground personnel have also not been deployed to identify their roosts and to kill them,” said Kuluo, adding that affected farmers have lost about Sh11 million.

“Because of the absence of crop insurance, they will not be compensated,” he said. According to local  agriculture office, farmers are harvesting between 17 and 20 bags per acre up from between seven and 15 bags due to good rainfall distribution which checked pests menace.

A total of 17 million bags are expected to be harvested compared to 10.7 million last season, statistics further indicate.

Farmers are selling a 90kg bag to middlemen for Sh1,700 down from Sh2,800 last year when harvesting started in July.

Absence of millers and failure  by National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) to purchase the grain, farmers say is responsible for the dipping prices.

“We have this year been left on our own. Repayment of loans we borrowed to finance production, will be a problem if prices plummet further,” said Dancan Totona, a farmer from Olopito area. Millers say they have enough stocks in their stores from 2016-2017 season, adding that they will not buy the grain this season.

“We are not buying this season. We have enough in our stores to last up to June next year when the next crop will be ready for harvesting,” said a field manager for Eldoret Grains Ltd who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak for the company.

Fredrick Shikuku, the Narok South Agriculture Officer, said the ministry has ordered for a plane to assist in the killing of the birds, adding, however, that the situation has been contained.

“We have put all measures in place to deal with the menace. We have also deployed ground team to help by burning their roosts,” he said.

Chemicals for killing them, he said have already been procured and added that the birds were expected to migrate to Kenya in early July.

Alarming figure

“They migrate from Tanzania every year in July. This time they are late. We didn’t expect them to land in wheat fields,” he said. He however, denied that more than 500 acres have been destroyed, saying his personnel were still assessing the damage. “It cannot be 500 acres. That is an alarming figure,” he said.

Early last month, the Ministry of Agriculture indicated it had resorted to using explosives to combat the estimated six million  quelea birds invading wheat and barley farms in the county. Speaking when he launched the exercise in Ololulumg’a, the County acting Director of Agriculture  Bernard Kimetto said the method was foolproof compared chemicals.

He said the exercise was to be carried out in various roosts at Murijoi in Narok South, Munyas in Mulot area in Narok West, Katakala in Narok North and Nairegia Enkare in Narok East.The Katakal roost is said to host the largest number, hosting about three million birds. The officials will be using diatomite explosives to blow the birds in their roost which Kimetto said was the best alternative.

“The birds pose great risk to the expected harvest as the birds are very destructive to the two crops and sorghum especially in their milk stage,” he said conceding that the six million birds which have landed in the county are a threat to wheat and barley farmers. Narok produces up to 50 per cent of wheat consumed in the country.

Currently, there are over 110,000 hectares under the crop this season.

Although they prefer the seeds of wild grasses to those of cultivated crops, their huge numbers make them a constant threat to fields of sorghum, wheat, barley, millet and rice. The average quelea bird is estimated to  eat around 10 grams of grain per day – roughly half its body weight – so a flock of six million can devour as much as 60 tonnes of grain in a single day.

Source: MediaMax Network