Potato traders in Nyahururu town have decried low sales of the commodity due to an increase in price of the produce.
A bucket of potatoes, which is mostly used by retailers to measure, that was initially retailing at Sh500 is now retailing at Sh800.Two kilograms of potatoes is retailing Sh120 rising up from Sh80.
According to Mwangi Muniu who is a potato farmer in Boiman area and a businessman in Nyahururu town, most farmers from the area have abandoned potato farming and taken up maize and other crops leading to a low produce this year.
Mr Muniu associates this whole crisis with the high cost of fertilizer early in the planting season which forced farmers to ration the amount of fertilizer that they normally use.
“Farmers who could not afford fertilizer like me and most farmers ended up abandoning potato planting. Small scale farmers were forced to either abandon potato farming or others planted using home manure, that is why the yield is very low this season,” said Muniu.
He says that during the harvesting period he noticed the difference in quality of the potatoes. They did not grow big in size as it has always been the case in the past years when he used fertilizer.
High fuel prices have also caused the price hike according to the farmers and Muniu has been forced to use his motorbike to transport the potatoes from his farm to Nyahururu market where he sells them to at least try and maximize on his profits.
Another potato trader, identified as Ruth Njeri, said that she has been selling potatoes in Nyahururu market for over 10 years but this year the potato yield has been low.
She said that they are forced to hike the prices because the supply is low while the demand is high.
Nyandarua County is well known for large scale potato production in the country over the past years.
