The face of many areas with high agricultural potential is rapidly changing as land previously used for food or cash crops is put to residential use.
Not so long ago, a 20-acre piece of land on the outskirts of Kakamega town in western Kenya was a busy agricultural farm all year round, producing a variety of crops.
“The owner would harvest tens of bags of maize and beans from the farm. He was one of the best farmers around, based on the yields he used to get,” recalled resident George Aswani.
“The owner first sold about half of it to two people, who later also sold part of their pieces. He later sold the remaining piece and now the whole of it is occupied by houses,” explained Aswani.
The land is just one among many parcels in the upcountry town and across the East African nation that have been built upon as real estate replaces agriculture.
The trend that has seen agricultural land in the capital, Nairobi, replaced by real estate, is fast catching up in the rest of the country.Houses are quickly supplanting maize and beans plantations in rural Kenya as demand for residential units rises and people seek better yields on their property.
“If you walk around, you will see that agriculture is fast losing out to real estate. Soon, it will have no place as the town expands and the population increases rapidly,” said the government worker. Aswani noted that about two years ago, one could find maize farms as close as two kilometres from the central business district.
“Now you have to travel about 20km from the town to find a maize farm, and it will not even be big. The rest of the land is dotted with magnificent houses, some occupied by their owners while others are rented out,” he said.
The rapid development of real estate in the town has seen land prices skyrocket. A quarter of an acre is now selling at between Sh988,176 and Sh1,448,244, up from about Sh193,032 less than a decade ago.”
The value of land has appreciated three-fold, especially in areas near the town. You must now have at least Sh900,000 to buy a sizeable piece of land,” noted Aswani.
The steep rise in value has led to further sub-division of land, making subsistence farming impossible. People here are also selling 50-by-50-metre pieces of land.
You can only build a house on such a piece of land. And you will not even have space to plant kale, as has been the practice,” Aswani observed.
In neighbouring Mumias, Busia, and Kitale, once bastions of agriculture, things are no different. In Mumias, large tracts of land that were once used for sugarcane have been turned into residential areas.
The once lucrative cash crop has lost favour with farmers due to poor yields, making them sell their land to real estate developers.
It is the same case in Busia on the Kenya-Uganda border, where houses and commercial developments like guest houses are coming up as people shun agriculture.
Kitale, one of Kenya’s food baskets, is also losing the crown it has held for many decades. Here also, real estate is replacing maize, the main crop, as farmers sell part of their land to house developers, especially in areas near the town.
“It is sad that agriculture is losing out to real estate developmen. If this trend continues, we will end up with very beautiful houses, but there will be no food to eat,” said agricultural extension officer Bernard Moina.
He noted that the trend is worrying agriculturalists but they cannot do much. “You cannot stop a farmer who has been offered good money from selling land. He will not listen to you,” said Moina. He noted that one of the main reasons many people are selling land is that farming is no longer lucrative.
“The past two years have been rough for maize farmers. Their crops were destroyed either by disease or inadequate rains, leading to losses,” he said. He noted that even those who get good harvests do not benefit much from their produce due to low prices.
The government has been offering farmers better prices, but processing the payments takes a long time, which discourages farmers. “It is such farmers who are selling their land to people who want to build houses,” he explained.
Antony Kuyo, a real estate consultant, observed that earnings from the sector far exceed those from agriculture, which is why many people are switching to the former.
“Real estate will give you up to 10 times what agriculture offers. So, people are seeking to reap from developers by selling land at very high prices,” he said. Kuyo added that to save agriculture, the government should come up with policies to outlaw arbitrary sale of land, especially in rural areas. “... The government should discourage the sale of plots in rural areas to curb land fragmentation,” he added. (Xinhua)
