The government should up its game to boost agriculture

Igrew up in Meru County, one of the rich agricultural areas where tea farming is majorly practised.

There were numerous challenges with tea farming hence farmers spent days and nights in tea buying centres to sell the produce to Kenya Tea Development Authority, the state parastatal (now a company) tasked with development of the industry in Kenya.

I went through this struggle and vowed agriculture would not be part of my life again. In secondary school, agriculture was the first subject I dropped. My hatred for agriculture was so deep that I even avoided agriculture club in school.

A few years later, while working, some of my uncles encouraged me to venture into tea farming, among other endeavours, to build my economic life.

However, family land tussles kept me off since I could not afford to buy my own land. But that would later change as friends encouraged me to do agriculture. I slowly but carefully joined tea farming and started farming miraa on leased land.

Without the tea industry, Meru County would be considered one of the poorest regions in the country. Through it, a lot of households have improved their lifestyle over time and managed to educate their children.

I’ve been privileged to be involved in numerous agricultural projects, hence I know so much about agriculture.

Editorial

The residents of Ngong, Ongata Rongai, and Kiserian townships have suffered a great deal in recent months; there has been no water in the taps and the supplier has no idea what to do about it. Worse, the private vendors have depleted their reservoirs as the unforgiving drought bites harder. The intermittent flow to reach households was enough to sustain domestic consumption while it lasted.