Issues Affecting the Agricultural Sector in Homabay County

There is great potential in Homabay County’s agricultural sector. It is unfortunate that most of this potential has been left to waste as it has not been tapped and utilized to its level best. This is one sector that has huge potential for boosting economic growth in Homabay county if well invested in.

Crops grown in the county include maize, sugarcane, sweet potatoes, bananas, groundnuts, sunflower, cotton, pineapples, soya beans, fish, rice, animal feeds and dairy farming.

These agricultural products present huge opportunities for the county to focus on value addition and agro-processing including packaging and export and take advantage of the lake, which connects the county to the entire EAC region. The advantage is that the Kisumu International Airport is a link to markets in neighboring countries and also to the international markets.

However, the challenges being faced by the agricultural sector in Homabay county has led to reduced economic growth and persistent poverty among farmers.  Among the challenges are land fragmentation of agricultural land into non-viable units, lack of funds that can be used in commercializing the agricultural sector and the high cost of farm inputs which makes it hard for the farmers to access them, especially small scale farmers.

Farmers need to be equipped with modern farming techniques and equipment, so as to make their work easy and help in increasing their yields. Outdated farming methods and techniques and lack of farming machinery has always been key in reduction of farm output. The same farmers need to be educated on the best farming techniques and the best productive seeds to use.

There is very little support offered to the farmers, especially the small scale farmers who are not in a position to afford extension services on their own, prevalence of animal and crop diseases, lack of value addition, poor post-harvest handling and marketing failures and extreme weather conditions like floods and drought leading to food in securing are also among the many challenges that need to be addressed in the county.

Farming in the county has also been hit hard by market price fluctuations on commodities and farm produce in the global market., thus leading to very low profits or even no profits at all to the farmers. High cost of power and labor also discourage farmers from practicing farming as most of them lack the capital to use.

Article by Vera Shawiza.