John Ndegwa looks out over his three-quarter-acre plot of land in Subukia, hoping he would be able to have a bountiful harvest from the onions he has planted.

His only worry in recent years has been the unpredictability of the rainy season - thanks to the effects of climate change - which has meant that farmers have either lost their crops on the farm or had meagre harvests.

But now, in addition to the unpredictable rains, he has other problems to contend with, these include the sale of fake seeds and subsidised fertiliser.

Ndegwa, who spent Sh10,000 to buy the government-subsidised fertilizer, says that he is currently counting his losses.

"I bought four bags of the government subsidised fertiliser to use on my piece of land where I have planted onions and at the time I did not know that it was the fake fertiliser. But on closer inspection, it looked like urea mixed with lime, which is unusual," said Mr Ndegwa.

A farmer loading bags of fertilizer after purchasing them from a retail shop in Nakuru.

Photo credit: Bret Sanya/Mtaa Wangu

At the time of purchase he had no reason to doubt that the fertilizer he was buying was fake. Now he has to dig deeper into his pockets to afford other alternatives.

"At the moment, even if the government reduced the price or gave me the fertilizer for free, I would not take it. They are really killing our livelihood. Many people, especially in my area, depend on large-scale farming and they were really counting on this subsidised fertilizer to provide a cheap and efficient means of getting quality produce, but it seems that will not be the case," he said.

At one of the retail shops in the city centre, Mtaa Wangu meets Wambugu Meshack from Kiamunyi, who is busy loading a sack of fertilizer onto his motorbike, this is not the subsidised fertilizer offered by the government.

Mr Meshack says he bought the 10kg bag of fertiliser for Sh5,000. He would rather buy the expensive fertilizer than trust the subsidised one from the government.

"The subsidised one costs Sh2,500 for a 50kg bag, but at the moment with the problems surrounding it, I would not want to buy it even at a cheap price only to be disappointed at the end. That is why I have opted to buy expensive fertiliser from private retailers," said Mr Meshack.

Grace Nafula at her cow peas farm in Baraka estate in Nakuru.

Photo credit: Bret Sanya/Mtaa Wangu

Grace Nafula, on the other hand, considers herself lucky to be one of the farmers who did not buy the fake subsidised fertiliser.

But despite being able to evade the predicament most of her colleagues are going through she says she is still very disappointed with the government over the whole issue of fake seeds and fertiliser.

"This whole issue is demoralising the farmers and the pain that a farmer feels when they invest resources in terms of money, time and energy and see no result is very unbearable. Especially when you know that someone somewhere is probably profiting from your pain, it makes it all the worse," said Ms Nafula.

Meet the climate-smart farmers of Nakuru, who are using cheap alternative fertilisers instead of synthetic ones

Author Spotlight

Leleti Jassor