Muhoroni MP James K'Oyoo has urged all the rice farmers who come from Muhoroni to ensure that they form their own cooperatives so as to avoid being exploited by middlemen.
K'Oyoo who was speaking yesterday while touring rice farms in his constituency said that most farmers were selling the rice that they have harvested at a very low price to the middlemen.
"The middlemen are buying our rice at a throw-away price. These middlemen are taking advantage of our farmers who do not have cooperatives. We need to form cooperatives which will assist us and also protect us from such middlemen,” K'Oyoo said.
K'Oyoo added that the government had frustrated the farmers due to its failure to buy the rice at a good price.
“I urge the national government together with our county government to kindly assist our farmers and also support them by ensuring that rice farming is looked upon so as to save our farmers who are on the verge of not planting rice again. The rainy season is almost here and I take this opportunity to ask the government to ensure that farmers get cheap fertilizers and seeds,” K'oyoo said.
K'Oyoo went ahead and said that a good number of farmers have sworn not to continue with the farming of rice if the government did not support them.
“I have received numerous complaints from the farmers who have assured me that they are going to quit farming rice if the government together with the county government does not assist them in any way,” K'Oyoo said