She takes out a handkerchief and wipes lines of sweat cascading her face as she sits on one of the bags of paddy next to her two acres of rice.
“It has been a long journey. I can now rest and enjoy the fruits of my labour,” she says with a broad smile.
A few metres away from where she sits, a group of women are busy conversing in the local Luo language as one cracks a joke in Acholi.
Auma waves at them and smiles before shifting her attention back to the men. They are still busy arranging the bags of rice to ferry them to the National Irrigation Authority’s depot, where they dry the harvested paddy before milling.
In the past, such harvesting seasons spelled doom for her and ushered in another phase of stress: accessing markets and customers. She would struggle to sell her produce, a problem that affected the region until three years ago.
This is no longer the case for Auma and hundreds of other farmers operating at
the scheme and at Ahero Irrigation scheme, which is located several kilometres
away.
EASE OF MOVEMENT
A vibrant migration and cross-border trade involving Ugandan nationals who have
made the rich agricultural Kano plains their home away from home has
transformed access to markets for these women.
Buoyed by the ease of cross-border movement of people enacted by the Kenyan
government, the Ugandan nationals who have migrated to the region buy
unprocessed rice in bulk from farmers and export to Uganda.
Unlike the past, where one was required to have a passport or a temporary pass
to travel to or from Uganda, today, it requires only a national identity card
for one to cross over.
The women attribute the ease of movement to the vibrant rice value chain that is breathing life to the rice farms in the Nyando rice belt area.
“They have given us a lifeline. We no longer struggle to find markets. They help us to access markets in Uganda by buying our produce,” she says.
So significant is their influence that some of them have integrated with the community and speak the Luo and Swahili languages to near-perfection.
Auma relies on women migrants from Uganda to buy her produce. They have also helped her get new markets in the neighbouring country with ease.
“I started rice farming in 1992. It has been a torrid journey. However, women traders from Uganda who are now a part of us are helping us find and open new markets,” she says.
In the past, she says, they used to rely on brokers to connect them to the Ugandan traders. However, with time, they have managed to create their own links to the markets as integration gains root.
“We are really impressed with the coming in of Ugandan traders. They are the
number one market for our produce,” she says.
REGIONAL INTEGRATION
Georgina Kizza, a Ugandan migrant who has been involved in the rice value chain
since 2015, says she is happy to contribute to the economy and improve access
to nutrition through rice farming.
She is among several women hoping to exploit Kenya’s efforts to embed its
economic network with the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The AfCFTA is an African Union Agenda 2063 initiative that is expected to be a key driver for Africa's continental structural transformation and industrialisation.
Kenya is among the countries that have ratified the policy and is encouraging
its implementation as it aims to create a single market for goods and services,
facilitated by movement of persons.
When we caught up with Kizza at her farm in Nyamware, West Kano, she was
inspecting her crop, which was almost due for harvesting.
For a person visiting the area for the first time, you cannot tell that she is not from there. She speaks the local language fluently despite having Ugandan roots, and has integrated well.
“Kenya is my home. I am glad, I have been able to venture into agribusiness and contribute to the production of nutritious varieties of rice,” she says.
Initially, she would buy paddy rice from brokers who acquired them from farmers. She would then export the rice to Kampala to mill it and resell it to her customers in Uganda.
Today, however, her modus operandi has changed. She has become part and parcel of the community and is a darling to other farmers.
While she still exports part of her produce, a huge bulk of her produce is consumed locally. She says after milling the rice, she sells some at Ahero shopping centre. In the last planting season in December, she leased three acres of land and used them to plant the pishori variety of rice.
“I work with several women who assist me in the production of rice. I also employ three casual workers who assist me with chasing birds when it is almost harvest time,” she says.
The casuals who undertake this are each paid Sh6,000 per month. Additionally, she believes she is contributing significantly to the economy by also improving food security.
At Ahero market, we meet Joan Neza (not her real name), a Ugandan national who has settled in the busy agricultural town, whose economy is largely supported by rice production.
When she first came to the country, she had hoped to sell second-hand clothes. But as fate would have it, she met someone who introduced her to rice production in Ahero.
“I started by hawking rice with the local women at Ahero. I did it for almost six months before I started buying paddy rice from farmers,” she says.
The woman, who stays in a rental house, says she has created links with other traders and helps farmers to access markets in other parts of the region.
“I have business partners in the region who buy paddy rice in bulk and in trucks. I have been helping them to get their products from farms,” Neza says.
Residents say the migration is contributing significantly to the growth of the
Nyando rice belt, where West Kano and Ahero Irrigation schemes lie.
INCREASED PRODUCTION
Joseph Ochieng, a farmer, says some of the migrants assist rice farmers with
farm inputs to help them with the production circle.
“Some of them invest indirectly in the farms by providing the farmers with fertilisers as well as preparing the lands. After harvests, they split the income with the local farmers,” he says.
Consequently, this has helped increase the area under rice production, which has been steadily rising in the last couple of years. For instance, statistics by the county government indicate that the two rice schemes have seen almost 8,000 acres of rice brought under rice production.
The rise in production has also been buoyed by the shift from better harvest to reliable market, courtesy of a new technology called system for rice intensification, as well as regional integration.
The system, borrowed from the Mwea Irrigation Scheme, involves intensive utilisation of water, where farmers have equal access to the limited commodity for a particular number of days, then they give it to other farmers and the cycle continues.
The bright prospects paint a picture of a rosy situation, where there is an
apparent lure to rice production and farmers toiling in the paddies smile all
the way to the bank at the end of a season.
GIRL POWER
Kennedy Ouma, the National Irrigation Authority Western Kenya schemes branch
manager, the intense production of rice in the two schemes is a game changer,
especially for women. He said some of the migrants have encouraged more women
to engage in rice farming.
For instance, as at the end of March, the number of women who are directly managing the farms both in Ahero and West Kano has grown up to 45 percent from 30 percent four years ago.
“Women empowerment is gaining root in the rice belt. The increasing number of women involved in rice production is a testament of the role women are playing in improving food production,” said Ouma.
He noted that the Ugandans also contribute to the production activities as they support the women farmers with inputs
“A group of women from Uganda also support our women farmers in provision of inputs. We also note that the immigrants come in handy to support women farmers with inputs and also some advances to be able to support some of their activities,” he said, adding that production increased in West Kano from 2 tonnes per hectare to around 2.8 tonnes per hectare.
He said the government is pursuing initiatives to plead with the women to join
cooperative societies for better prices.
“I want to encourage our women to take a lead role to get a better livelihood,”
he said.
“And also to tell our men to give women the opportunity because even farms that
are managed by women do better than those managed by men. Women play a big role
in rice production in this region and they need to be supported even
financially.”
This content is produced by African Women in Media (AWiM) as part of the Move
Africa 2025 project, commissioned by the African Union Commission and supported
by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not
necessarily reflect those of BMZ, GIZ or the African Union.
