Farmers raise queries over quality of county fertiliser

Farmers have questioned the quality of fertiliser issued them by the county government.

Gladys Ndiwa, a farmer from Mount Elgon, said they were happy the county government had finally decided to distribute fertiliser, but claimed it was full of stones.

“We were glad when the county decided to give out fertiliser, but the quality is wanting, as there are many stones,” she said.

Fiona Cherop, another farmer, said she had been forced to stop planting preparations in order to source quality but expensive input from private traders.

The county gave the farmers the fertiliser last week.

“We were happy when we were called to Bungoma and issued with fertiliser.

"However, when we started planting, we realised that it was of poor quality. We need proper input for us to continue planting,” she said.

The farmers now want the county government officials to give them quality input.

County Assembly Agriculture Committee vice chair Sospeter Nyongesa said the input had rock-like particles. He said it might have been fake.

Received samples

Mr Nyongesa stated that they had received samples from a cross section of the county and realised the fertiliser was of poor quality.

“We have received samples from farmers from across the county and preliminary investigations show that it had been mixed with a lot of rock-like particles. We have called on farmers to return such samples,” he said.

The committee took the samples to the Ministry of Agriculture and vowed to investigate the procuring process and the supplier over the matter.

Summoned executive

Nyongesa said after farmers raised concerns over the quality of the input, they summoned Agriculture Executive Mathews Makanda.

“We have summoned the executive to appear before us on Wednesday to explain the status of the input. If we find it is of low quality, then somebody will be brought to book,” he said.

Reached for comment, Mr Makanda said the department had sent officials to the farmers to collect samples and ascertain the quality of the fertiliser.