Farmers to start buying cheaper fertiliser during the current week
Workers arrange bags of subsidised fertilizer at the National Cereals and Produce Board depot in Elburgon, Nakuru County in this photo taken on October 11, 2022. PHOTO | JOHN NJOROGE | NMG
Farmers will start buying subsidised fertiliser this week after the government begins distributing it to different counties across the country with the arrival of the first batch of imports.
The distribution, which comes ahead of the March planting season, has seen key maize-growing counties like Uasin Gishu and Trans-Nzoia receive the first batch of fertiliser.
Agriculture Principal Secretary Harsama Kello said at least over 10,000 tonnes of the commodity have been moved from the Port of Mombasa to the upcountry in readiness for planting.
“We have so far moved assorted planting fertiliser to Bomet, Narok, Bomet, Uasin Gishu and Trans-Nzoia and we shall be distributing more to the rest of the counties as it continues to arrive in Mombasa,” said Mr Kello.
The government is targeting to distribute over three million bags of cheap fertiliser to farmers ahead of the planting period as it seeks to lower the cost of production that was incurred by farmers last year when the cost of the commodity hit a high of Sh6,000 per 50-kilogramme bag.
Farmers will now pay Sh3,500 for a 50-kilogramme bag of planting fertiliser, nearly half of what they would have parted with at the market rate.
This will be the first time in four years that farmers will be accessing subsidized fertiliser after the scheme was stopped in 2019, largely on account of corruption.
To curb the corruption cases, the government said it will distribute the fertiliser through an electronic platform where farmers will be required to register with selected agro vets.
President William Ruto late last year directed the Ministry of Agriculture to come up with a digital plan that would see farmers get fertiliser through money transfer on their e-wallets as opposed to paying for it at the NCPB depots.
The e-wallet initiative is aimed at curbing fertiliser theft and misappropriation as witnessed before when farmers would collect the commodity directly from the NCPB depots.
Farmers will then collect fertiliser from their nearest agro vets that will be registered under this programme.
The government had, In 2020, rolled out the e-voucher programme in a pilot phase, but it was only directed at small-scale farmers in selected counties who received money through their mobile phones to purchase the farm inputs from approved agro vets.
