By Munene Kamau
Following massive crop failure in most parts
of Kirinyaga County due to inadequate short rains late last year, the Anglican
Church is buying rice to mitigate the looming famine.
Diocesan Bishop Joseph Kibucwa said the
church has so far spent Sh1 million in buying paddy rice from farmers at the
Mwea Irrigation Scheme.
The cleric said although the programme was
started a bit late when the harvesting season was almost ending, the church has
managed to secure some reasonable amount of the grain.
''We took some time studying the situation
before arriving at this decision to buy the paddy rice and have it stored for
use when the looming famine finally starts to bite our people,'' Kibucwa said.
He said they had also anticipated adding some
more from the latoon crop, which has incidentally failed due to acute water
shortage in the scheme.
The latoon crop comes from the offshoots
after harvesting the main crop and does not require much attention though its
harvest is low, according to Hosea Wendot, an irrigation expert.
Mr Wendot said if adequate water is
available, harvests from the latoon crop can sometimes increase to almost half
of what is produced from the on-season.
Mr Wendot is the immediate former manager of
the National Irrigation Board at the giant Mwea Scheme. He has since been
posted to the board headquarters in Nairobi.
Thursday, Kibucwa said his staffers have
stared identifying families already hit by food shortage.
Some of the hardest hit areas are Karima,
Rukanga, Makutano, Murinduko and Kanjuu
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