Nairobi, Feb. 16 -- A story about some Embu County farmer who razed down his mango trees jolted me. He was fed up! Motivated by prospects that a processing factory would be established nearby, he invested heavily in a mango plantation.

But the factory never got functional. He subsequently found himself saddled up with mangoes without a market.

Noticing the desperation of such farmers, brokers offer unacceptably low farm-level prices to maximise profits.

Mangoes in Embu, therefore, continue to waste away for lack of reliable markets. I've heard a nearly similar story with bananas.

Indeed, many counties have their dispiriting stories with farm produce. Nyandarua has often been in the news over milk and cabbage going to waste for lack of...