Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Culture vs Reptile Farming in Nyanza Province


Surely some headlines can never hit the Nyanza's headlines as a matter of fact; this may be due to some cultural believes and notions developed by the people. Imagine of such a headline in Nyanza, 'A Kisumu man rears tortoise for cash' but in other regions it has and continues to. In Kitui and other areas in Eastern Kenya, farmers have diversified on their production as a result of the unreliable rain patterns that favor none of their crops and are now opting for tortoise farming; a production that highly relies on the export market to countries that are reptile consuming.
I got interested whether such kind of farming would see the light of the day in Nyanza if by any chance it was introduced. The Luo community is one of the communities in Kenya if not in the world that has the largest number of taboos and beliefs concerning reptiles rearing. Unless you posses a witchcraft history, one may not go it easy with such kind of farming, no matter how much it fetches in the market. Nyanza has one of the best climates in Kenya that can support all kinds of farming, be it snakes, hippo, crocodiles, mention it; can we the 'westernites' give room to such new productions? 

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