Farmers in Murang’a County, Kiharu along Sagana area are slowly embracing rice farming which was traditionally practiced in both Kirinyaga and Kisumu County.
Kimathi-Githuri Irrigation scheme has been recently introduced to the people of Kimathi three years ago by the former MCA Gaturi Ward, Miss Rosemary Wakuthii who is a large scale rice farmer in Murang’a.
Wakuthii hails the county government of Murang’a led by Hon Mwangi wa Iria for supporting the programme through a budget of 238 million during her reign as an MCA of Gaturi ward.
Wakuthii says the main challenge was rice farming skills and the know-how, so they had to hire skilled labour from Mwea where rice farming has been practiced for many years.
According to Wakuthii, one acre of land can produce 26bags of rice that can add up to a profit of Kshs 50,000 minus all the expenditure.
John Mwangi is a rice farmer who owns an acre of land at Kimathi and talks about how rice farming has benefited him since he started farming in one acre of his land.
Challenges mainly faced by the farmers are birds which eat the rice grains affecting the harvest in general, hippopotamuses which destroy the plantation and high prices of fertilizers.
Their plea to the government is; provision of pesticides to prevent rice seedlings from being infested by pests, coming up with a method to scare away birds, construction of electric wire to scare away hippopotamuses and construction of a rice industry within the locality where their rice can be processed.