Government slashes fertiliser prices

Casual workers process maize bought from farmers at the National Cereals and Produce Board depot in Eldoret. There are fears NCPB will not buy all the maize from farmers. [PHOTO:KEVIN TUNOI/STANDARD]

ELDORET: Maize farmers can breathe a sigh of relief after the Government announced further fertiliser subsidies.

But not all farmers may celebrate the news as many of them have not been able to sell their produce to the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), which is aid to have run out of funds to buy the fresh harvest.

ADDITIONAL FUNDS

Last week, Agriculture CS Felix Koskei said the Sh2.7 billion allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture for the strategic grain reserve drive in 2014 had almost been exhausted.

“We are remaining with Sh460 million after purchasing 1.4 million bags of maize from farmers. This amount can only purchase an additional 296,507 of 50kg bags,” said Koskei while assessing the progress of the exercise.

He challenged county governments to allocate funds in their 2015-2016 budget to supplement the money set aside for purchase of maize from farmers by the Government.

Kenya Farmers Association (KFA) Director Kipkorir arap Menjo welcomed the Government’s move to reduce fertiliser prices from Sh2000 to Sh1800, but called for release of additional funds for uptake of maize from farmers.

“The Government needs to allocate at least Sh3 billion to purchase the massive produce from the farmers since only a half of them have benefited from the exercise,” said Menjo.

Mr Menjo said the entire North Rift region produced nine million bags yet NCPB had not bought even half them. “If the Government truly serious about promoting agriculture in this country, it should give NCPB more funds to buy the maize as there are still long queues at depots yet we have been told the money is almost over,” said Menjo.

He said The Maputo Declaration binds AU member countries to allocate a minimum of 10 per cent of their national budget to agriculture, yet Kenya gives the sector only three per cent.

The KFA director said farmers may not have money to buy inputs for the next planting season if they don’t sell their produce to NCPB.

NEXT WEEK

“The next planting season is here and students are joining Form One. NCPB is our only hope. We welcome reduction of fertilizer prices, but the Government should also subsidise the price of seeds, which have been hiked by over 20 per cent,” added Menjo.

The farmers are set to meet next week to push for additional funding to NCPB to buy their produce as well as deliberate on slow payment of farmers who have delivered their produce to NCPB.