Unreliable weather is disrupting Kenyan farmers’ livelihoods and raising mental-health concerns, doctors say. Farmers struggle to predict harvests, income and the feed available for their animals, while a looming super El Nino adds to worries about weather patterns they say have become difficult to rely on.
Farms Under Pressure
Josephine Kihu has worked her coffee farm in Nyeri for three decades. Prolonged sunshine forced her to switch to a more resilient bean variety, and now she must arrange for someone to water the coffee trees.
Farmers once relied on rainfall to water seedlings, Kihu said. A light shower offers little reassurance; she described it as drizzle that can’t help the trees. Watering adds work and expense, yet the farm’s return remains uncertain.
“Can you imagine how much money, you have invested here? I have invested a lot and finally I don't harvest anything, I might die,” Kihu said. “As a farmer, you could go insane.” She said unpredictable weather had affected farmers’ mental wellbeing, though some might not recognise what’s causing their distress.
In Kiawara, livestock farmer Charles Ndung'u said goat farming had traditionally brought reliable income despite the area’s semi-arid conditions. March rainfall didn’t produce enough pasture to sustain the animals through a prolonged dry spell, and a livestock disease outbreak in June worsened the shortage.
From July, some goats grew too weak to stand. Ndung'u said he lost 40 goats in three months. The animals also help his family pay school fees: he said the family would sell one or two goats to send children to school.
Losses and Mental Health
Early rainfall could wash away the little dry feed the goats have survived on, while fresh pasture will take time to grow. Ndung'u said seeds were in the ground, but he couldn’t tell whether they’d sprout or whether the rains would continue.
“If they don't grow, that's more stress. We don't have money,” he said. “We depend on the goats for our children's school fees. You would sell one or two and send children to school. Without the goats and money, we have many problems.”
Kahindo Gacago, a clinical psychologist at Outspan Hospital in Nyeri, said climate-related challenges contribute to mental-health concerns among farmers. He described losses building up over time, along with the chronic stress of repeatedly planning around changing conditions.
“Especially when you feel like you've lost control, because something like the weather it's not something in your control,” Gacago said. He believes about a third of his patients are farmers experiencing mental-health issues linked to repeated agricultural losses.
Changing Practices, Policy Response
Changing climatic conditions can contribute to a loss of identity, Gacago said, when farmers must abandon familiar practices, adopt different lifestyles or relocate in search of more promising conditions. Some may turn to alcohol or other substances to cope, he said.
He urged policymakers to include mental wellbeing in farmer support programmes, promote climate-smart agriculture and improve access to irrigation. The report describes no specific government programme or funding commitment. Instead, it focuses on farmers’ losses, the uncertainty facing their livelihoods and the support a psychologist says they need.