The government has commenced the procurement and distribution of 7.2 million bags of subsidized fertilizer for the 2025 long rains season.
Agriculture and Livestock Development Cabinet Secretary (CS) Dr. Andrew Karanja said that for some parts of the country the long rains start Mid-March, while in others they start in January that is why they have started the distribution early to ensure that farmers have adequate fertilizer by the time the planting season begins.
Speaking at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) head office during the flagging off for the distribution, the CS said they require an estimated Sh20 billion to meet the country’s demand for fertilizer which stands at an average 12 million bags annually.
“Initially we had a budget estimate of Sh9 billion for the subsidized fertilizer and we are still negotiating with the National Treasury to give us more funds so that we can be able to fulfil the country’s demand,” explained Karanja.
The CS said that the fertilizer subsidy is one of the best performing programmes under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) and it has been critical in helping the country achieve the food security status it currently enjoys.
According to Dr. Karanja, they had an open tender with 34 companies bidding for the supply of subsidized fertilizer and eventually 13 companies were awarded the contract.
The CS highlighted that they target to maximize fertilizer distribution and easy access of the commodity by farmers confirming that plans are underway to onboard agrovets and well organized cooperative societies mainly in the coffee and tea growing zones.
“When we were doing the registration of farmers, we also registered around 15,300 agrovets, about half of them will be onboarded to distribute the fertilizer where we will be looking at their capacity and storage facilities to determine their suitability,” said the CS.
To enhance quality and ensure that there is no case of fake fertilizer, Dr. Karanja said that they have formed a multiagency team comprising of the Ministry of Agriculture, NCPB, National Intelligence Agencies, Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and other quality assurance organizations where NCPB is under instructions not to receive any fertilizer consignment without a quality certificate from these agencies.
“The multi-agency team is also tasked with monitoring the distribution from the national level to the counties to make sure that nothing happens in between the distribution channel and they will be taking random samples to check on the quality,” said Karanja.
The CS guaranteed farmers that quality will not be an issue this time round assuring that the structural and institutional measure that they have put in place will deliver the required quality.
To ensure that farmers reap the maximum harvest from their crops, the CS disclosed that the fertilizer being distributed is soil and crop specific where they have fertilizer for maize, tea, coffee, sugarcane and other crops.
“We have different fertilizer formulations for the specific crops based on the nitrogen and other needs of the various crops covered under the subsidized fertilizer,” said the CS.
NCPB Ag Managing Director Samuel Karogo said that the subsidized fertilizer is a blend between locally manufactured ones and imports where the 13 companies awarded the tender to supply the fertilizer bringing together local players and those importing chemically compounded fertilizer.
“For the crop specific fertilizers, we are using local manufacturers and blenders who can meet our quality standards,” said Karogo.
He disclosed that they are at the tail end of distributing subsidized fertilizer for the short rains season where farmers have redeemed 2.4 million bags out of the targeted 2.7 million bags, which will be attained by the close of December 2024.
By Joseph Ng’ang’a
