By Our Reporter
Tired of exploitations by middlemen sweet potatoes farmers in Migori County have joined hands to form a cooperative society to improve their earnings from their sweat.
For a long period the farmers have sold their produce at low prices to brokers ending up living a miserable life.
They now believe their woes would be addressed by a co-operative society. “We have decided to come together as sweet potatoes farmers to defeat the exploitative middlemen. We are in the process of forming a society which will be registered soon,” said Rioba Mang’era, a farmer from Kuria West.
A sack of potatoes they sold at Sh 1,000 or Sh 1,500 would later be sold at Sh 3,000 or Sh 3,500 in other towns. “Scores of farmers here would wish to take their sweet potatoes direct to the markets in order to get good prices but they are constrained by transportation. We hope the society will help us in this,” said Rioba.
With a society, the farmers say they will be able to pool produce together and take it to the markets without relying on middlemen.
Plans are in place to facilitate farmers to visit Meru County for benchmarking from successful societies.
