Export trading group to boost food production with high quality fertiliser

NAIROBI, KENYA: Agriculture plays a strategic role in the process of economic development of a country.

In Kenya, it is not only a principal source of employment but it also provides food and an important ingredient for the agro-based industries. It is no wonder that any shortage of agricultural goods has its impact on industrial production and a consequent increase in the general price levels.

What this means, therefore, is that an increased agricultural output and productivity translates to a substantial overall economic development of a country. In Kenya, the agricultural sector directly contributes 24 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 27 per cent of GDP indirectly through linkages with manufacturing, distribution and other service related sectors.

Indeed, about 45 per cent of the government revenue is derived from agriculture. Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation put the sector's contribution to industrial raw materials and export earnings at 75 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively. Today, agriculture accounts for 60 per cent of the total employment in Kenya, with more than 80 per cent of the population deriving their livelihoods from it.

Yet agriculture continues to suffer from different setbacks, impeding its potential as an important tool for promoting national development. 

They include supply-related challenges such as expensive, erratic and low-quality supply of farm inputs, lack of extension services, lack of enough credit, and the poor state of the infrastructure. No doubt, low farm produce prices also remain one of the biggest headaches to farmers. 

With its greater emphasis on further development of the agricultural sector, the government is implementing a three-prong policy intervention. The policies seek to address supply, marketing and income-related challenges. So far, farmers are benefiting from subsidised inputs, access to credit through the Kilimo Biashara Initiative and the involvement of the National Cereals and Produce Board in the purchasing of maize from farmers.

But the government's interventions need to be propped up by the private sector if we are to fully exploit Kenya's agricultural potential. 

It is on the back of this that the Export Trading Group (ETG), a Kenyan agricultural multinational, has laid an ambitious plan whose focus is on boosting farm production across Kenya. 

ETG is doing this through the provision of free extension services for farmers, timely supply of affordable, high quality seeds and chemicals to farmers and guaranteed high prices for produce from farmers. Importantly, we are carrying out trainings and awareness programmes to farmers on how to reduce losses, particularly during and after harvesting. 

So far, the outcome of these interventions have been commendable, with farm production going up by between 30 per cent and 50 per cent in the last three years. However, this is not yet where we would like to take farmers. Our primary goal is to see production double in the next five years, thereby making Kenya food stable and boost the income of farmers.

That is why later this month, we will be launching a fertiliser blending plant in Mombasa, the first of its kind in the region.  This is a grand step towards empowering farmers in Kenya for the fertiliser produced will be defined by the soil conditions from different regions. As such, soils will be fed with the exact kind of nutrients — from fertilisers — that they require.

With an average daily production capacity of 150,000 tonnes, the new technology, will certainly help to tame high prices of the farm input and address perpetual food shortage in Kenya, and, ultimately, the East African region.

Besides being a soil-specific fertiliser, ETG has gone an extra mile to come up with a mobile application that guarantees accessibility of the commodity. 

Through the fertiliser mobile app, farmers can tell which brands of fertilisers are available in the market and at what price. Importantly, using their mobile telephones, farmers can also spot the nearest point where they can purchase the input from. The app is available in both the Play Store and App Store in English and Kiswahili. 

So far, Trans-Nzoia, Bungoma, Uasin Gishu, Kiambu, Nyeri, Murang'a, Nakuru, Kericho, Bomet, Kakamega and Migori counties lead in the uptake of the new app. Nyanza, Coast and Eastern have also shown strong appetite for it. 

—The writer is the Country Director of Export Trading Group, a multinational dealing with farm inputs. Email: shem.odhiambo@etgworld.com