Farmers who register themselves with the ministry of agriculture stand to benefit from the government’s subsidized fertilizer which is sold at Sh1500 for a 50kg bag compared to current retailing price of Sh1800 for a similar amount.
So far, the government has distributed 900,000 bags out of 2.3m bags of subsidized fertilizer in its stores to farmers.
Farmers are required to register before the start of this year’s harvesting season by liaising with agriculture officials in their respective counties. Through the registration, the NCPB will offer subsidized fertilizer to farmers and then buy their maize directly and those not registered by October risk losing out on the government’s support.
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The move to register the farmers comes at a time when long queues of lorries delivering maize to the National Cereals and Produce Board depots in Eldoret, Bungoma and Moi’s Bridge.
The ministry notes that the whole process is shrouded in mystery with dishonest traders suspected to be importing maize from Uganda before selling it to NCPB to the disadvantage of genuine farmers.
According to the ministry, farmers in Uganda use same maize varieties as those in Kenya and therefore it is difficult to distinguish the source of the produce delivered.
In 2017, the ministry reported that over two million farmers had registered with them in a move that was said to boost service delivery while at the same time ensuring smallholder farmers sell their produce to government institutions to meet the 30 per cent threshold of procurement of food rule on food in Kenya.
By 22nd March 2018, the government had purchased 3.4m 90kg bags of maize worth Sh10.98bn from farmers across the country. Out of this Sh7.05bn had been paid to the farmers leaving a balance of Sh3.93bn with a 90kg bag retailing at Sh3200 up from Sh3000 in 2017.