By Daily Nation
As a farmer of French beans, Josphat Mutisya has on several occasions had to contend with losses.
The small-scale farmer from Kabaa, Machakos County, is an exporter of French beans, but sometimes he has failed to meet the international food safety standards on pests and diseases.
Mutisya uses water from the polluted River Athi.
For his produce to qualify for export, it must have a pest and disease tolerance of between zero and five per cent rust and between zero and five per cent anthracnose.
During an interview at his farm he said: “When they (horticultural exporters) find that they are contaminated, they just dump the produce and we are not paid.”
He added: “Sometimes they can give us credit notes to cater for the cost of transportation and other costs when they find that they cannot export your product.”
During one of the occasions, he was told that his French beans had E. coli and could not be exported. He fears that one day he will not be able to farm for lack of clean water for irrigation.
But, he is not alone, thousands of smallholder farmers in Kenya cannot export their produce and sometimes it cannot be sold locally because of contamination, diseases and pests.
