The plight of small-scale Agro-traders.

Small-scale farmers in Ngarua are trying their best to make ends meet. The farmers struggle with unfavorable climatic conditions, but even when they have managed to produce crops, they are still faced with a bigger challenge of accessing better markets for their commodities.

For the last eleven years, Mr Kinyua have relied on small-scale agro-business. He operates a grocery at Sipili trading center and buys his wares from farmers within the area and even have to travel as far as Tanzania for other commodities that are not available locally, though some of the crops can grow in Sipili, most farmers lack the knowhow or even the seeds.

When we visited Mr. Kinyua, we established that the oranges he was selling had come all the way from Tanzania. He took one of the oranges and gave us to eat. The fruit was yellowish inside, had a thin outer coat and had seeds, it was sweeter than most of the local varieties. He also added that of the many commodities he is selling most of them are from outside Sipili and even outside Laikipia.

Some fruits like avocados are sought from as far as Meru, these are larger as compared to the ones grown in Sipili. However they are not as sweet as the local ones.

Mr Kinyua deals in fruits like; avocadoes, bananas, sweet melon, paw paws, oranges, pineapples and cereals: Amaranth, soya beans, maize, cowpeas, dolichos beans, millet and sorghum. Kinywa is also a vegetable vender where he sells; Onions, kales, Dania, pepper, beetroot, garlic and many among others.

For the last eleven years, Kinywa have relied on his business as a source of family income, school fees to educate his children and somehow sustain his family in every way.

In spite of the fact that the business is important to him, he is facing many challenges such as.

a) Poor transport – some goods get spoiled along the way while being transported from the farmers to the market.

b) Poor storage facilities- he would like to increase the stock but the space cannot allow and also lack special facilities to handle some perishable commodities like tomatoes and some fruits that cannot stay for along.

c) Poor market- Some commodities are produced at a very high cost but, in the market they are sold at very low prices because they are not popular. Traders are sometimes forced to travel a long distance to get some commodities so as to maintain his customers.

d) Lack of awareness – People lacks awareness of some commodities such that when they are brought to the market, people take a long time to familiarize with them and to know how they are used. He gave an example of the sweet melon; he was the first person to introduce the fruit in the market, and clients took along to know what they were, such that some got spoiled in the stores, ‘‘I was forced to sooth people to buy giving them to taste” said Kinyua.

Recommendations.
I. Mr Kinyua recommended that, better roads be built to improve access to better market.
II. He added that better storage facilities should be introduced and farmers shown how to grow various kinds of crops.
III. There is need to venture into online marketing to support farmer to access better markets.
IV. Establishment of a storage facility.