Inflation-hit Kenyan farmers want food where their mouths are

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

KAGIO, Kenya (AFP) — Twenty years ago, Benson staked all his assets to venture into lucrative export crops and started growing the French (green) beans so prized by European consumers.

But with rampant inflation pushing up his costs and a slumping market for French beans, the ageing Kenyan farmer decided to revert to subsistence crops and "plant for his stomach".

"When prices were good, I was able to build a house, I got a wife and I was able to raise my family," says Benson Murimi Munga.

"Then, the buyers started dropping prices... I was facing losses in terms of what I had invested in the farm in buying fertilizers, pesticides, seeds and labour, I could not recover."

Now the 49-year-old has stopped growing French beans and his modest plot in Kagio,...