The Ministry of agriculture has enhanced quality checks to ensure farmers receive quality subsidized fertilizer this season.
According to Agriculture Principal Secretary Paul Rono, besides working with the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS), the ministry had set up a monitoring and inspection team to keep tabs on the products being distributed across the country.
Early this year, the ministry was rocked by a substandard fertilizer scandal that involved government officials and companies contracted to supply the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).
Speaking in Meru while inspecting the progress of aggregation stores and Kenya School of agriculture campus projects, Dr Rono assured farmers that they would receive the subsidized fertilizer in time.
The government is targeting to reach more than 202,000 farmers through the fertilizer subsidy programme after allocating funds for more than 93,000 tonnes this financial year.
Grain stores in Tigania West
PS Rono said the ministry was constructing two grain aggregation and storage stores as part of the government’s plan to increase farmers’ earnings through warehousing.
“The aggregation centres will help grain farmers fetch higher prices for their produce. It will also reduce the distance covered to get subsidIZed fertilIZer. In the long run, we intend to have farmers adding value for their produce at the aggregation centres,” he said.
Dr Rono was accompanied by his counterparts including Patrick Kilemi (Cooperatives), Peter Tum (Sports) and Susan Mang’eni (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises –MSME).
Mang’eni challenged grain farmers to form community based organisations through which they can access government funding for value addition projects.
She said the ministry of cooperatives would fund CBOs near the aggregation facilities to the tune of Sh20 million for value addition.
Tigania West MP John Mutunga said the grain aggregation centres would stop exploitation of farmers by middlemen.
“Farmers will be able to store their grains and receive advance payment as they wait for better prices,” Mutunga said.
He said farmers have been selling a kilo of beans for as low as Ksh20 due to glut for lack of storage facilities.