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Kenya: Massive crop failure in "grain basket"

21 Aug 2009

NJORO: Two months before harvest time, the maize in Kenya's Rift Valley should be tall, lush and green, bursting with life. Instead, crops in the province's Lare division are stunted, barren fields of parched browns and pallid yellows.

A crop production officer from the Ministry of Agriculture examines stunted maize at a farm in Njoro district in the Rift Valley Province. The district has experienced over 90 percent maize crop failure following poor and erratic long rains between March and June 2009 © Jane Some/IRIN

The area, local farmers say, has experienced three years of erratic rainfall. This year, however, has been "a nightmare", Samuel Karanja told IRIN on 17 August 2009 at his farm in Njururi village.

"I do not expect to harvest anything, yet I used a lot of money to prepare my land and plant maize and beans earlier this year," the 70-year-old farmer said.

Read the full article on IRIN.