The Indian market is not the real issue. India limits imports to avoid the 'ndengu' price from crashing hence un-profitable for It's farmers - who are known to commit suicide on a bad harvest year...


Sufficient long rains + planning by Kitui county (i.e distributing Ndengu seeds before the rains ) resulted in bumper harvest.

At you local retail Kiosk/supermarket Ndengu is still ~100/kg. Every bumper harvest season [once in 3-4 years] the broker (a capitalist) will take advantage on the cash strapped farmer who hasn't had a harvest in as many years and will sell at any price. Storing has costs and risks and your average subsistence farmer can't. In November 2018 the price of Ndengu will be +100/Kg. Someday i will build silos and a guaranteed 70% gain in 4 months is fathomable...better than NSE stocks yield

*** I have farmed Ndengu 2015/2016 and managed to ferry to Nairobi retailers @90/kg in a glut period but i am privileged middle class with a car

Maybe it's because there hasn't been a political pressure group to champion for these.

Politics is also about making forces to be felt and responded to.

Good idea but does the county government have storage capacity? Why not the National government??..........and this brings forth an idea Jimnah has fought to have for a long time. Commodity Exchange!! It's done the world over. Why not in KE?

Exactly! The prices would be somewhat regulated but that would cushion the farmer.

At what price would the county govt buy the ndegu having supplied the seed in the first place? Farmers want Ngilu to purchase at 100/- is that sustainable?

We would not be having this maize drama year in year out if a commodities exchange existed now Rotich is releasing 1.4B to pay maize farmers, can Kitui MPs approach him to buy ndegu too?

A Commodity exchange would need a real sizeable produce volumes. We barely produce enough for consumption leave alone to trade. The maize at NCPB may be like 3 months reserves, hence nothing for trade. Sugar we basically have nothing and even Ndengus we eat are from neighboring countries and this is a one off glut considering this is a 90 days crop.

30 bob per kg? I should send a 10 ton truck to kitui to buy @30bob and then store and sell later @100 bob.

That's where the rubber now meets the tarmac in commodities. 30 bob, is per gorogoro, ama mkebe. You then start consolidating from hundreds of farmers, then transport to your warehouse,dry to good levels to avoid afrotoxins and moulds, treat before storage , rent storage warehouse etc and wait for the right timing. It's profitable in the long run as you buys cheap. Incur costs and wait for the right time.

If I were Ngilu, would buy all that glut with taxpayers money, distribute to all hungry counties for free and create future markets. Ndungus are not a Kenyan delicacy and once people get it cheap or free and discover it's yummy,a big market would be created. 20,000 tones is a drop in the ocean

20,000 tones of the glut is equivalent to 20 million kilos of ndengu. Nbi has a population of close to 5 million people and assuming an average household size of four people, you get roughly 1.2 million households. If 25% only decide to take ndengus , they would wipe the whole glut in less than two months by taking a kilo a day as a source of protein as in stew for Ugali, Chapati, rice etc. It's just that people don't consume it. Much more meat, beans etc are consumed

Dengu is a staple of the Uniformed forces in Kenya. I know, because we used to eat the stuff in NYS and they still do. We have more than half a million men and women in uniform at any one time. A dengu surplus of 20,000 tons is not a problem, it is a solution.

But, as usual our lack of imagination, or is it stupidity, blinds us to the obvious.

Mama Ngilu needs to be commended for her vision, not condemned.

Meanwhile, Crystal ball prof has opened a 10 Bed hotel in Kitui. This should ease the glut albeit in a small way

https://www.nation.co.ke...55792-ucjrfiz/index.html