December 21, 2023– The government has disbursed 45,000 tonnes (900,000 bags) of fertilizer for Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) tea farmers with a promise that it will be available next week.
“The fertilizer we are flagging off here today will be available in our tea buying centers by Monday of next week, ready to be picked by farmers who have registered themselves for the subsidized fertilizer program,” said Agriculture and Livestock Development CS Mithika Linturi during a flagging off ceremony at the Mombasa port.
The subsidized fertilizer will be accessed by smallholder tea farmers at their nearest tea buying centers for Sh,2500 per 50 kg bag.
The cabinet secretary added that In October of this year, the government disbursed a similar batch of 45,000 bags of fertilizer to tea farmers which has been utilised during this rainy season. As a bag of fertilizer now costs Sh2,500, he urged farmers to double their fertilizer usage to increase yield.
“Our wish is to maximise on the good rains we have had to have more than enough food for local consumption as well as exports. This will be critical in attracting more dollars into the country helping to prop up our devaluating shilling,” Linturi added.
He further added that plans are underway to ensure that a total of seven million bags of fertilizer are availed during the long and short-rain seasons of 2024. This will cut across farming priority value chains as defined in the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).
This forms part of the government’s focus on subsidising food production to ensure that farmers can competitively produce crops, and sustain agricultural production and productivity to aid in bringing down the cost of living.
“By mid-February, there will be sufficient fertilizer for the second planting season that we are getting into. We would urge farmers to visit National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) stores as well as other stores we are using to access fertilizers,” mentioned Linturi.
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