Subsistence farmers from Nyamira County have called for an urgent help from the county leadership following emergency of a pest that has reportedly destroyed their bean crops.
Speaking to HiviSasa.com on Sunday, the farmers led by former councillor Maroro Ombego, said the pest had become uncontrollable hence the need for the county government to send specialist before farmers experienced massive losses.
According to them, the situation might escalate in case an urgent and expeditious action is not taken besides calling for close monitoring of the situation since they hugely depended on the beans this summer.
“We are really shocked with the kind of the pest we are seeing for the first time. It is eating our beans at a fast rate and something should be done expeditiously to investigate and come up with an urgent solution. We are bound to make huge losses which we are obviously an immense setback in our food production,” Maroro said.
The farmers have reportedly used pesticides in the market in vain hence needing help from the Ministry of Agriculture at the county level.
“It is unique and most of the pesticides that are in place cannot work on it. We really need experts to carry out a laboratory test and give us solutions to the predicament,” he added.
Local agricultural expert Timothy Ogato admitted the uniqueness of the pest and called collective collaboration from other experts to unearth the mystery.
“I have been observing the situation for one week now, and I think this is a serious case, it will require a collective effort to deal with the menace,” he said.