Kisii county farmers have a reason to smile after receiving government subsidized fertilizers at the Kisii National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) following President Dr. William Ruto’s directive.
During his inauguration, President Ruto ordered the price of fertilizer to be reduced from Sh6, 500 to Sh3, 500 in his attempt to curb the current high cost of food in the local market.
Speaking to KNA in Kisii town Wednesday, NCPB Kisii Branch, MD Dennis Okemwa confirmed that they have already received 560 bags of fertilizers and more bags were on transit.
Kisii has been identified by the government as one of the priority counties to receive the fertilizer, since it is one of the leading areas in agricultural production and Okemwa now says that they expect to receive at least 10,000 bags in their stores.
“We have already started to distribute the fertilizer to the farmers. However, the number of farmers we have received so far is low probably because many are not aware the fertilizer has arrived. We expect the numbers to increase with time,” the MD noted.
Mwamonari location chief, Titus Mokaya who is also a leading farmer and had come to buy the fertilizer had this to say: “As farmers we are excited following the arrival of the fertilizer in the market and thank the government for this kind gesture.”
He said the initiative will help relieve them from the high cost of production and allow them to produce more food.
“The challenge we have as farmers is that we have less agricultural officers in the area and we urge the government to employ more so that they can advise us on the application of these fertilizers and on how we can generally increase our farm yields,” Mokaya pleaded.
The chief added that they will inform the people through public barazas that the fertilizer is already at the market adding the fertilizer was of high quality and would help them realize higher yields.
Another farmer, Evans Onduko from Bonchari Sub County said that before the arrival of the subsidized fertilizer, it had been a big challenge for them to plant due to the high prices of manure.
“This initiative will be of great importance for us given that in the last planting season, I was forced to plant without enough fertilizer which led to low yields,” Onduko said.
He added that he was glad the newly installed government has kept its promise to farmers by reducing the cost of fertilizer in order to make it affordable to more farmers and increase production, thus stabilizing the economy.
By Sheillah Esther and Johnson Manoti
