Farming in the high potential districts of the Rift Valley Province was greatly hampered by a shortage of tractors and combine harvesters last year.

According to a report compiled by the provincial director of agriculture and livestock extension, Mr K. Chepsaigutt, the combined machinery of the government and private contractors was not able to meet the demand.

The province has eight Agricultural Mechanisation Service stations located in the high agricultural corridor, which includes Kajiado, Narok, Nakuru, Uasin Gishu, Nandi and Trans Nzoia districts.

Last year, the eight stations had 31 tractors and three combine harvesters, which were hired by farmers for land preparation and harvesting.

Mr Chepsaigutt says in the report that during the wheat harvesting season, the demand for combine harvesters was very high in districts such as Kajiado, but there was a shortage of funds to service combine harvesters owned by the government.

"In Eldoret, the demand for combine harvesters was also high but farmers were constrained financially and opted for private contractors, who accepted payment in terms of the harvested wheat."

The 129,966 hectares which were under wheat in the province last year yielded about three million bags.

Farmers in Narok District, where 50,000 hectares were under wheat, produced slightly more than a million bags of wheat, compared with Uasin Gishu District, where farmers produced about 1.2 million bags.

Mr Chepsaigutt says that according to the machinery census taken last year, there had been a very slight increase in tractors and combine harvesters due to the depressed economy and the high cost of motorised power sources.

Ploughing a hectare of virgin land cost the farmers between Sh3,000 and Sh6,250, while the cost of ploughing a hectare of cultivated land ranged between Sh2,500 and Sh3,750.

Farmers paid contractors who used animal-drawn ploughs between Sh2,500 and Sh3,750 for virgin land and between Sh2,250 to Sh3,000 for land that has been cultivated before.

The report indicates that the revenue collected by the government from machinery hire services in the province dropped from Sh9.3 million in 1996 to Sh4.5 million last year.

Some contractors from as far a Eldoret moved to Narok and Kajiado during the wheat harvesting season.

Small-scale wheat farmers suffer more during the harvesting period because most of the contractors prefer dealing with large-scale producers.

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