Machakos farmers get relief as state provides free cotton seeds

MUOKI CHARLES-KNA 

Cotton farmers from Yatta, Machakos County, have received five tonnes of free seeds from the government, ending their despair over the possibility of failing to plant their much-coveted crop this rainy season. 

The over 500 farmers from Yatta and Masinga Sub-Counties, who have been receiving good returns from cotton farming for the past four years, said that one of the private investors who had been supporting them with seeds pulled out, causing them to lose hope of obtaining seeds. 

Led by their chairman, Francis Kilango, they said the seed distribution came at the right time, just as the rains had commenced. 

Kilango, who is also the chair man of the Lower Eastern Cotton Growers Union, termed the move to supply the seeds a significant step by the to revitalize the cot ton industry.

“For the past four years, the farmers have depended on Thika Cloth Mills, a Thika-based textile industry, for free seeds and pesticides. 

This season, the company has been unable to support us for their reasons, and the government quickly intervened,” he said.

He added that the seeds, imported from Cuba by the government, represent a shift from the BT cotton seeds they had been accustomed to, which had been introduced by the previous administration. 

Unlike the BT variety that the farmers have been planting, Kilango said the new Hart variety is prone to pest attacks, matures after six months compared to BT’s three months and does not yield as much as the BT variety. 

However, the new variety better suits arid and semi-arid lands like Yatta unlike BT.