Dairy farmers from Ojola in Kisumu County are feeling the pinch due high prices of Napier grass in the area that keep rising daily.
Most farmers depend on external suppliers as their farms are not sizeable enough for planting Napier grass. The prices have been on the rise for the past one month and it has been attributed to the acute dry spell experienced in most parts of Kisumu County.
One month ago, a bale of Napier grass was valued at Sh100 and currently the same bale ranges between Sh250 and Sh300. The farmers are forced to search for the grass further as it is now scanty in the area and in the process, incur losses due to transportation cost.
Sometimes it is not affordable and already the farmers are feeling the impact of high Napier grass prices. “Normally I produce 25 litres of milk in a day, but in the past one month the quantity has been dropping rapidly and now I only afford around 15 litres,” said Aggrey Odumbe, farmer.
“We are forced by the situation to feed our cows on banana stems since we have no option and such feeds are not known to be good in production of milk,” said Bakari Oseta another farmer from the area.
It is a tough year for the farmers considering that the dry spell at the beginning of the year extended up to March and the rainy season was short lived.