The above exploitation of pyrethrum farmers by the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya continued for decades since there was nobody else to buy their pyrethrum crop. The “Board” had the monopoly, so farmers were at the Board’s mercy, despite the hard labor they put in growing and harvesting the crop. This is one of the sad stories of Nyandarua. A very productive County but long neglected with no markets for their abundant produce.
Farmers got so discouraged by the pyrethrum crop, with its single buyer who was exploiting them year after year, a lot of farmers uprooted their pyrethrum and used their land for other crops instead. On our farm, we did not understand it back then when our father stopped tending to the pyrethrum and for the first time ever, the cows were let loose to graze on the overgrown weeds amongst the pyrethrum bushes. The pyrethrum was trampled upon, eventually flattened and destroyed by the mighty hooves of some well fed cows numbering thirty or more. My father did not intend to use any more of his labor force to uproot a crop he was already phasing out of his farm.
This must have been devastating to our parents and all other farmers because pyrethrum used to flourish effortlessly, and it was part of their income, now decimated for lack of a profitable market. For us as children, it was one less task to perform, so we were kind of happy, unaware of how this new development was going to impact our family’s financial well being.
Those are some of the painful and impactful things that parents go through but their children have no idea at the time, until they are grown and they start understanding, even feeling the pain their parents went through.
