We are farmers👩‍🌾, brokers are our employers💰

I happened to be at Narumoru at the same time Mr Jimmy Joe was harvesting potatoes 🥔.Infact I was late because they started harvesting on Monday while I arrived on Tuesday.It was a 3 acre farm and he had decided to utilize 2 acres to plant.

Since am always keen with numbers I realized the first day he had employed 10 workers that's $25 cost on labour.Upcountry Working hours rates are as follows

8am to 1pm with each hour earning 50 cents.Therefore working for 5 hours you pocket $2.50

Incase you don't provide them with 10'oclock tea it shoots to 60 cents an hour that's $3 . I went ahead and asked what if one did not want to leave at 1pm but instead continue working till 4pm or 5pm ,I got a long stare.Its unheard of,nothing like that.Why? Here is the case

Since Rural-Urban migration has been on the rise especially in Africa with people being bought into the idea that city life is better than rural life which might be true depending on how you look at it.Its a no brainer that in the city there is money.More people,more money .But the Catch is The more money you make,the more money you spend.Since income is directly proportional to expenditure.But in Rural areas the population is slowly decreasing with the aging population increasing. The young population are not much willing to work since 2 working days can push you for upto 5 days or 6 since the cost of living is low. You don't pay for electricity,Water is close to free.Rent cost you $5 a month that's two working days or if lucky on a potato selling day as I will explain you can as well pay for 6 months and free style, so the only thing keeping you grinding is food and with a farm where you've planted greens the only thing worth grinding for is flour.

Therefore a person working full time there is either one with a family that depends on them or two addicts who work to supplement their daily drinking and smoking habits.

During the second day,the workers reduced to 8,the two women did not come reason being they claimed the previous day they had received boiled potatoes with tea which literally lowered their standards.So on Friday which was the last day since they had done almost all the portion I was previledged to work on the farm and my work was to transport the potatoes from the farm with a wheelbarrow upto the granary where it was to be sorted then weighed then packed, but after all the digging had been finished first in the farm.

Before all this something weird had just happened a broker came to Mr Jimmy Joe and pitched himself telling him that,he the broker was willing to buy each bag for $18 but the whole system would be his from finding the right people to dig up the potatoes,pack them in sacks and bring a truck to pick up the potatoes but Mr Jimmy Joe rejected."That's a good deal but I'll sell them my own style" he said.Not knowing that later that was the worst decision he had ever made in his farming life.

So on Friday here was the drill, sorting big potatoes and small potatoes.The big potatoes were to be sold,the small potatoes were to be used as seedlings for the next season.The later big potatoes were packed in 50kg sacks then I with a colleague named Wafula would weigh then arrange the 50kg on the packing shade.

On Saturday still doing the same drill.Sort, weigh,pack another broker came who I heard was from Timau.He was to come on Friday but never came because 'his car' broke down therefore had to postpone till the next day.So on his arrival after seeing the potatoes,he wasn't pleased claiming that the variety we had was not in the market then he claimed his truck was on another farm loading potatoes so incase there was space he would pass over.He then insisted to be given a paper bag and take the potatoe samples to his seller and since the borrower is slave to the lender ,he was given a handful of potatoes and promised that he would be back soon."Premium Tears"😭

Nearing the close of work schedule since it was almost 1pm we had already packed 100 bags of potatoes each bag weighing 52 kgs that was approximately 5 tonnes.

We each got paid our $2.50 and closed the work and since the only work that was left could be done by one person we got laid off as we now awaited for someone to buy the potatoes because they were on the market.

Mr Jimmy Joe's last price was $25 that's take or leave .One buyer came on Sunday claiming he had $15 for one bag but the offer was too low.The following week 2 somalis came to survey the potatoes since at the time in Garissa a bag of potatoes was going for $55.They were not impressed,they said the variety was not market friendly.So the first week slipped like that with no buyer coming and my uncle's tension rising since the potatoes were now prone to going bad.Its now 8 days down the line with no potential buyer and at the same time in Nairobi anyone selling potatoes was making a kill,so we are ordered to do the inevitable unpack the potatoes the 100 bags of potatoes into the granary and for every bag we offloaded we could come around rotten potatoes that had even started to affect the rest since it was kinda a ripple effect.We were now again at square zero.

Things started to get messy upto a point where Mr Jimmy Joe came to a conclusion to go find the brokers who at first came pitching to buy at 1800 but for now the tables had turn because with a duration of two weeks potatoes had already saturated the market.They were willing to buy each bag at $10.This was a rip off.Jimmy Joe could not believe it.His 5 months hard work on potatoes seemed like someone was peeing on his investment but this was now take or leave because by the look at things,the potatoes started getting messy.But he had no option it was kaput so on the D-Day they came with their people who were to again sort out the potatoes as they packed them on their own terms ,60kg bags .By that time the 5 tonnes had already depreciated due to some starting to shoot and others going bad.The brokers packed only 53 bags that's $530 for my uncle which was a complete loss.