Farmers in Nandi County have been asked to provide factual information about their farms during the registration process in order to benefit from the government subsidised fertiliser.
Nandi County Commissioner Herman Shambi stated that correct information will assist the government to plan and know which intervention, farm inputs and subsidies are needed in a certain region in order to improve food security and productivity.
The registration exercise targets farmers participating in various crop production enterprises. Its main aim is to establish a national database of all farmers which includes identity, profile, location, crop acreage and fertiliser requirements.
Shambi was speaking at the County headquarters during the training of National Government Administration Officers (NGAOs) including Chiefs and Assistant Chiefs on how to use the digital registration tablet.
He said the new system will eradicate brokers and unscrupulous middlemen and help farmers increase production.
“This Programme is meant to bring down the cost of food production that’s why we are calling upon all local administrators to ensure genuine farmers are registered and even authenticate their farm sizes to avoid registering ghost farmers,” he said
The County Commissioner noted that they will involve village elders, agricultural officers and Nyumba Kumi officials for efficiency and maximum coverage of the exercise.
Nandi being a tea growing region, farmers have been called upon to come out in large numbers and take advantage of the process to benefit from low cost fertiliser
Shambi urged the administrators to ensure one hundred per cent coverage of household crop farmers so that no farmer is left unregistered. “We want all farmers to benefit from this subsidy programme,” he said
President William Ruto is expected to roll out the distribution of farm inputs in the next two weeks after the digital registration is concluded.
Farmers have welcomed the move saying the system will weed out cartels who have been frustrating farmers not to benefit from government programmes.
By Linet Wafula
