The Kalenjins have a love for maize. No meal is even complete without maize in eat: breakfast starts with left over ugali, lunch is githeri, and supper is ugali. Because we have a talent elsewhere, we’ve left ugali for the Luhyas. 

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For that matter, the sign of wealth in a family is its ability to harvest enough bags to feed the family throughout the year. This is an exception for those who do not do commercial maize farming, who are way more than those who do it for subsistence. 

The costs of planting maize, straight to the time it is harvested are too high. There’s tilling, harrowing, weeding (twice) or spraying, harvesting, and then lastly shelling. If you combine the cost in each of these processes, it would be enough to buy bags of maize enough for a year. 

Politics surrounding the maize in Rift Valley does not make it any better if the solutions being advocated for are achieved. The government has stuck its guns. The farmer is suffering, and politics is simmering as leaders jostle for 2022 positions. 

If you ask me, the farmer should be taken care of. They are the people who feed the country. Subsidize maize inputs such as fertilizers, enable farmers to create cooperatives and start small value addition factories and then market their products to the local consumer. 

As far as the common man is concerned, there’s a lack of political goodwill from leaders. The industry is riddled with cartels whose interests are about creating personal empires at the expense of many hard working and deserving farmers. 

It is time the Kalenjin people started thinking seriously about abandoning maize. The talks of diversifying are not farfetched. It is time for the farmer to think of alternative ways other than maize, to earn a living. 

There are more lucrative agri-business ideas such as dairy farming, poultry farming and even fish farming. 

Even as the politics rage on, the verdict has been delivered: diversify. Or perish. Even before this politics, I had already made up my mind that I would never venture into maize farming.

#hivisasaoriginal