David Karumba, a pyrethrum grower in Molo, reminisces the heydays when pyrethrum was lucrative and fetched more income for farmers in the region. He, however, says in 2000, the sector started to decline as the once vibrant Pyrethrum Board of Kenya (PBK) struggled to pay farmers. At its production peak, there were more than 220,000 pyrethrum farmers who were harvesting between 7,000 and 12,000 tonnes of the crop per year. Geoffrey Longeletoro, another farmer, says he has been growing pyrethrum for close to 10 years and he has no plans of shifting focus. “Some farmers abandoned the crop in early 2000 when Pyrethrum Board of Kenya started delaying payments.

Source: Standard Digital July 19, 2021 09:00 UTC