Why Kenya’s wheat farmers are ditching the crop

A worker inspects wheat at the Kenya Seeds demonstration plots at Kabiruini Showground in Nyeri, Kenya on August 23, 2023.

Photo credit: Joseph Kanyi | Nation Media Group

Kenyan wheat farmers are abandoning the crop in favour of others such as barley, a move expected to widen the supply deficit and open a window for more imports. 

And this could put further pressure on the shilling exchange rate, which has hovered around Ksh129 against the US dollar for more than a year now, a US agriculture agency has warned.