Posted on September, 17, 2018 at 11:05 am
Mercy Mwai @wangumarci
The government requires Sh10 billion to procure enough fertiliser to cater for all farmers during the 2018/2019 planting season.
Agriculture and Research Principal Secretary Hamadi Boga told senators that the ministry intends to procure and distribute 200,000 tonnes of various types of fertiliser including 50,000 tonnes of agriculture lime.
He said before 2013, the government spent Sh13.2 billion to buy 402 tonnes of fertiliser that benefited 1.3 million farmers. In the following year, he added, the government spent Sh4.3 billion to buy 8,654 tonnes of fertiliser that benefited three million farmers.
Appearing before the Senate ad hoc committee investigating maize crisis in the country, Boga said to improve productivity the ministry intends to start a vigorous liming programme to address the issue of acidity as most of the soils in the country’s maize growing zones are acidic.
The agricultural lime, he said, is to be distributed to the areas suspected to have high soil acidity and thus its application will improve the productivity. “The acidity needs to be reduced by adding lime so that the impact of fertiliser can be felt. We intend to start a vigorous liming programme to address this issues,” Boga said.
He told the Senators that the government is keen on protecting farmers from unscrupulous traders, adding: “These traders have taken advantage of innocent farmers where they buy fertiliser and repackage before selling to them at high prices”.
This time around, he said, only the vetted and registered farmers will be sold the subsidised fertiliser to cushion them from exploitation.
Boga said since many of the unscrupulous traders are aware that government offers subsidised fertiliser and thus buy from National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) at cheap prices and then sell to farmers at high prices.
“We have strengthened monitoring of the distribution of government subsidised fertiliser and only vetted and registered farmers will access such fertiliser,” he said.
The Senators led by chairperson Margaret Kamar gave Boga seven days to table a list of all the vetted farmers that are set to benefit.
They expressed concerns that for a long time farmers have been taken advantage of by unscrupulous traders and thus sought to know the measures the ministry has put in place to cushion them from such exploitation.
Quality tests
“We have had issues with maize and now we don’t want to have similar issues with fertiliser. Ensure that you table the list of all the vetted farmers,” Kamar said.
Mid this year, clearance of Sh1.4 billion fertiliser said to have failed quality tests landed Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) top officials in trouble. Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji said he has enough evidence to charge the fertiliser’s importers, OCP (K) Ltd, and the firm’s directors.
Kebs is said to have released 5.8 million tonnes of imported fertiliser on January 24 to OCP (K) Ltd amid reports that samples had failed to meet the required local standards. Igembe North MP Maoka Maore tabled before the National Assembly Committee on Trade, Industry and Co-operatives a report showing that the fertiliser failed to meet the required percentage vital phosphates, nitrogen and sulphur.
In the report by Kebs, the consignment from Morocco was tested in February and had 0.33 mercury content instead of the required maximum of 0.1.
But OCP Kenya Ltd said it was surprised by the accusations leveled against it and its directors, saying it complied fully with local and international standards.
Source: MediaMax Network