NYANDARUA COUNTY LOSES 40 PERCENT OF POTATOES HARVESTED

By Clive Ayuko

Nairobi, Kenyan 10th November

Nyandarua County loses approximately 40 percent of all all potatoes produces. This was made known by Mr. Nahason Kanyi Chege, the Head of Department of Agriculture and Environmental sciences at Nyandarua National Polytechnic who spoke during the 2-day (9th – 10th November) inaugural Technical and Vocational Education Training TVET Applied Research forum organized by Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) through the TVET Innovation Fund Project (SITVES) currently ongoing at the Technical Trainers College in Gigiri Nairobi.

Participants during The TVET Conference organized Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) at the Technical Trainers College Nairobi. Images courtesy Clive Ayuko

The situation Mr Nahashon confirmed has been compounded by low prices of potatoes. ” A 50 Kilogram Bag of Potatoes Mr Kanyi said, ” Costs Ksh 500 which means a kilogram of Potatoes costs less that Ksh 7. As such farmers are forced to sell the potatoes at a loss to recoup some of the production costs”.

To mitigate on the situation Mr Kanyi added; ” Nyandarua National Polytechnic is working on production of fortified irish potatoe floor which is able to last longer and thereby limit losses in the county. Additional He continued to add “Nyandarua National Polytechnic is also conducting research on organic irish Potatoe farming to keep in line with the European Union Export Market regulations which limit use of chemicals in production of potatoes.

In 2019 in a public petition No. 70 of 2019 the National Assembly Committee of Health led by Hon Glady’s Boss Shollei presented a report to parliament on withdrawal of 262 plant protection molecules used in Chemical pesticides from the Kenya market. The report if adopted will have adverse consequences on Potatoe farming.

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