The government, through the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) and Commodities Fund, has flagged off the first consignment of 1000 bags of subsidised fertiliser to farmers in Kajiado County.
Speaking during the flagging off of the subsidised fertiliser at the Kajiado NCPB depot, Nancy Cheruiyot, the CEO/Managing Trustee of the Commodities Fund, said that the government has promised to reduce the cost of food production in the country, and the first step is by providing fertiliser at an affordable price to farmers.
“Today we are here to basically flag off the subsidised fertilizer. The Kenya Kwanza administration made a promise to Kenya to bring down the cost of food, and one way is to ensure that every farmer has access to fertiliser at a very highly subsidised cost. When you look at the fertilisers that we have flagged today, the first batch is 1000 bags of 50kg NPK targeting 22000 farmers, and another batch is on the way,” he said.
The farmers will be able to get a bag of fertiliser for Sh2,500 as opposed to Sh6,000 if they purchase from various agro-dealers. The government is shouldering more than 50% of the cost to ensure every farmer increases their yield by using high-quality fertiliser that has been subsidised.
Cheruiyot revealed that they are trying to reduce importation as much as possible and increase exportation so that they can be in a position to deal with the issue of food security in the country.
“The issue of food security is ensured in the country; we bring the issue of trade; we minimise the importation of basic food items like maize and rice, among others. Secondly, if we can be able to produce a surplus, we can be able to export some and earn some dollars, as we all know that currently the shilling has been performing poorly against the dollar, and one way of doing that is by increasing our exports,” revealed Cheruiyot.
Kajiado West Sub-County Agricultural Officer, Ruto Joseph, raised a concern on the farmers residing far from the depots and called for the government to find ways in which fertiliser can reach the grassroots levels without the farmers incurring a lot of cost.
“On issues concerning fertiliser distribution, we only have 2 depots in Kajiado County, one in Loitoktok and another in Kajiado town. It will be better for these subsidised fertilisers to be closer to where farmers are at the grassroots so that they minimise transport costs as much as possible. It will increase the uptake and usage of fertiliser to increase productivity in Kenya,” said Joseph.
By Seline Nyangere and Sammy Rayiani
