Posted on November, 23, 2018 at 10:13 am
Agriculture chief administrative secretary Andrew Tuimur has assured farmers that the backlog of fertiliser at the Port of Mombasa will be cleared by next week. Early this month, horticulture farmers, specifically cut flowers, complained of fertiliser shortage attributed to the delay at the port.
Tuimur said the situation has been resolved and the commodity will be released to farmers by the end of this month. However, the CAS decried public investment in agriculture which he said has not created the desired transformation for increased production.
“Ensuring food and nutrition security to all Kenyans continues to be a challenge in spite of the numerous initiatives introduced to enhance production and productivity for various crops, livestock and fisheries commodity value chains,” he said.
Tuimur added that high prices of input and poor agricultural market systems, rapid population growth, high post-harvest losses, unsuitable production systems and climate change pose the biggest challenge to sustainable food production in the country.
Private sector players have been putting pressure on the government to consider privatising fertiliser clearance at the Mombasa port in order to hasten distribution of the same to the majority of farmers in the country.
Speaking during the opening of the Future of Food 2018 conference at a Nairobi hotel, they urged the government to speed up inspection of fertiliser at the Port of Mombasa or open up the process to them.
Eustace Muriuki, chairman of Fertiliser Association of Kenya complained that clearance of fertiliser at the port has been slow thus leading to delayed supply to, particularly, horticulture farmers.
Kenya Bureau of Standards, he said, is very slow in the process of inspection that has led to delay yet the planting season for short rains crops has already started in some parts of the country.
“The government should allow private sector to handle fertiliser distribution owing to elaborate infrastructure and strong distribution systems,” Muriuki added.
Vision 2030
Players in the private sector further faulted the national fertiliser subsidy programme introduced about 10 years ago in line with Vision 2030, saying it is not having positive impact on the ground. Muriuki pointed out that since the introduction of the programme in 2009, the average maize yield has stuck at between 12 bags and 15 bags of maize per acre.
“The programme has not significantly increased the maize production as expected and equally there has not been significant increase in fertiliser usage contrary to reports by the government,” he said.
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations data shows that close to four million people in Kenya receive food aid annually while the country experiences 20 to 30 per cent staple foods deficit every year.
Maize deficit
For instance, maize has a deficit of 12 million bags, wheat 595,000 tonnes, rice 425,570 tonnes, sugar 230,000 tonnes, milk, 334 million litres and fish 314,900 tonnes.
Tuimur also said the ministry in consultation with Treasury will identify and make recommendations for tax incentives for inputs such as aquaculture feeds and post-harvest loss reduction technologies including driers, and hermetic bags.
Source: MediaMax Network