Kenyan Farmers Embrace Drought Resilient Crops

Kenyan farmers have taken up the initiative of embraced drought resilient crops, cassava being one of them.

In most towns across the country, there is plenty of fresh cassava being sold, a move that has led to increased consumption of the tuber compared to years back when it was considered food for low-income households.

Traders are fetching good profits from selling of fresh cassava and a market survey on selected towns showed that the Nakuru had the highest market price for a 99-kilogram bag of cassava which was being sold at 3,200 shillings while Kitui had the lowest market price of 1,100 shillings.

Cassava is hardy, resistant to drought and high yielding crop. Its beauty is that other than being a reliable food crop especially in sub-Saharan Africa, it also does well in poor soils and areas of low rainfall.

Other tuber crops in the market included red and white Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes.

A 50-kilogram bag of both red and white Irish potatoes have almost the same prices in selected towns like Nairobi where it goes at 2,200 shillings, 2,300 shillings in Mombasa, 1,700 shillings in Kisumu and 2,000 shillings in Kitale.

The table below gives a summary of market prices in selected towns across the country: