Posted on November, 1, 2018 at 10:11 am
Winstone Chiseremi
Members of the Senate ad hoc committee on the maize crisis experienced the wrath of North Rift farmers during a public hearing that was meant to give the latter a platform to express their views over myriad challenges threatening their livelihoods.
The farmers vented their anger over the delayed payment of the outstanding balance capped at Sh 1.7 billion from the maize they supplied last year to the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) depots across the region.
The government has, however, promised that the farmers will from today begin receiving Sh1.4 billion payment after the cereals board completed verification of deserving beneficiaries.
Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa said 900 farmers had been cleared for payment.
“We have verified all the 1,154 farmers who were asked to fill up the verification forms, 1,140 farmers returned the forms successfully, 900 were cleared,” he said.
The Senate Ad hoc committee on maize crisis, co-chaired by Uasin Gishu senator Margaret Kamar and her Bungoma counterpart Moses Wetang’ula and a section of local MPs, found themselves at the receiving end as farmers blamed their leaders for their woes. The charged daylong consultative forum brought maize farmers from Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Elgeyo Marakwet, Trans Nzoia and part of West Pokot counties that form North Rift region.
Emotions ran high at Eldoret town Hall, the venue of the meeting in Uasin Gishu county as the farmers vented their anger and rage on their elected MPs and senators for keeping mum instead of championing for their rights in maize sector. They castigated their leaders for allegedly colluding with cartels to kill the sector by importing cheap maize and resell the same to NCPB at the expense of their locally produced crop.
The farmers, however, singled out Kamar and Moiben MP Sila Tiren – who received a standing ovation in the hall – as the only leaders who were articulating issues affecting the maize sector in the region. Led by Patrice Chepkwony, the farmers told the committee that disgruntled officials of the board were working with influential traders by giving them first priority during delivery of maize to NCPB at the expense of genuine farmers.
“The board has been giving the traders first priority to deliver their maize imported from neighbouring countries to the board’s stores as we local farmers queue on lines stretching five kilometres for weeks and even months in our quest to deliver our products to the facilities,” he said.
Chepkwony said driers such as the one at Eldoret NCPB, installed 47 years ago, were obsolete and new facilities were urgently needed to serve them efficiently to save on time and resources. They gave the ad hoc committee a raft of demands they want to be fulfilled ahead of next planting seasons failure to which they will abandon maize crop altogether and switch to other crops.
According to a prominent farmer Kimutai Kolum, farmers want payment for maize supplied to the board to be made promptly and that the government devolves the purchase of subsidised fertiliser and vetting farmers to counties.
With the projected bumper harvest this year, the farmers have asked the board to open buying centres immediately to save them from unscrupulous traders out to exploit them. Kolum said they were worried over the delay by the government through NCPB to fast-track the opening of buying centres across the region in the wake of increased maize yields.
They also want the National Treasury to tell them how much it has put in the budget for Agriculture ahead of next maize harvest and farm input. Earlier, the farmers petitioned the government to address with immediate effect the raft of demands concerning the sector or they reduce production of the crop by 50 per cent next year.
“Unless the government addresses all our demands, we shall roll out a massive campaign in maize-growing counties that will culminate in the reduction of land under the crop by 50 per cent, a spokesman Jesse Maiz said.
“We also want the national government to devolve all the National Cereals and Produce Board stores to weed out cartels and brokers who have been bringing imported maize and storing them at the facilities at the expense of locally produced crop,” said Kolum.
He said all the NCPB stores are currently full with imported maize, adding that they have nowhere to take their produce that was harvested last year which stands at 500,000 bags of 90kg. He said cartels had taken advantage of disunity among their leaders to infiltrate the maize sector by importing and supplying the same to NCPB stores in collusion with officials of the board.
“It is unfortunate that the government has been watching for the last one decade as maize farmers continue to be exploited by brokers and traders during harvesting period instead of addressing their plight,” said Moira Chepkok, a farmer.
Kamar assured farmers the committee will come up with a concrete report that will address all the problems that have been affecting the sector for decades.
“When we go back to Nairobi, we shall sit down and write a report detailing problems and come up with a permanent solution that will make the sector attractive as before,” she said.
Wetang’ula said the outcome of the report will seal all the loopholes that have been used by cartels to make profits in the imported maize at the expense of local farmers.
Source: MediaMax Network