Posted on January, 30, 2019 at 09:46 am
By Nicholas Waitathu
Government’s involvement in the maize sub-sector is set to reduce if a report by the taskforce constituted by President Uhuru Kenyatta last year to address woes facing farmers’ is adopted.
The report to be officially released this week after being presented to the President proposes a raft of measures aimed at minimising government participation in the sub-sector.
Key proposals include ending the government’s practice of setting and announcing maize prices and enhancing fertiliser subsidy programme, mainly procurement and delivery of the same.
Also proposed is the restructuring of key government’s food value chain agencies namely National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) and Strategic Food Reserve (SFR).
The team chaired by Agriculture and Irrigation Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri proposes that determination of maize prices should be left to the market forces of demand and supply.
Other members of the team are Governors Jackson Mandago and Patrick Khaemba of Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia counties respectively. Details of the report emerged last week after Kiunjuri chaired a maize industry taskforce validation workshop at Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KARLO) headquarters in Nairobi.
The meeting attended by county agriculture executives, senior officers from the national government and representatives of farmers and trade lobby groups among others followed conclusion of collecting views from farmers and other stakeholders on the challenges that faces maize sub-sector.
Kiunjuri said the report on the findings of the maize taskforce will be released sometimes this week after it has been validated and approved by all the relevant authorities.
“The taskforce will thereafter be required to develop an implementation work-plan aimed at improving the sector once the report is adopted,” he added.
The CS, however, declined to discuss details of the report but hastened to add that farmers when giving their views to the team emphasised the need for home-grown solutions for the woes facing maize sub-sector.
“The ministry is determined to streamline operations of NCPB and bring to an end perennial challenges which have bugged farmers for decades,” he added.
Lasting solution
Uhuru directed the formation of the taskforce during last year’s Mashujaa Day celebrations at Bukhungu Stadium in Kakamega county to address woes facing maize farmers and find a lasting solution to the issue.
The formation came at the back of heightening fury and lamentations by maize farmers who accused the government of neglecting their plight and impoverishing them. A senior officer with Agriculture ministry and a member of the taskforce disclosed to People Daily after the meeting that the team has made a proposal to let the market forces of supply and demand determine maize prices every year rather than the government.
This, the source stated, will end numerous and annual conflicts between the government and small-scale farmers, traders and millers over prices.
“Key highlight of the taskforce report as the way forward is that government will no longer set prices every year. Government will equally be buying from the market like any other player and farmers will sell maize based on prices determined by demand and supply,” said the source.
Once the proposals are approved, the source said, NCPB and SFR, being government entities, will be modernised to conform to the current realities and thus pave way for introduction of new ways of engaging farmers, for example, contract farming.
In the new set up, SFR will be contracting farmers to produce maize on its behalf so that the country’s granaries have adequate stocks at all times thus being able to address incidences of food insecurity. The proposals conform to recent calls by various stakeholders, among them, Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, millers, traders and farmers on the government to reduce its active role in the maize business and facilitate for a level playing ground.
For example, they have been faulting the government’s fertiliser subsidy programme, saying despite its existence, there have no improvement on annual maize production as deficit has had to be bridged with imports from other external sources.
Within East Africa, Kenya is the only country that consumes all its produced maize thus depending on imports to bridge the supply-demand gap. The taskforce report further proposes review of the NCPB Act 1985 (CAP 338) in order to have the board’s roles enhanced to conform to the current reality. NCPB’s key mandate is commercial grain trading.
Uhuru has often reiterated the government’s aim of transforming SFR to enable it have a wide variety of food stocks, stabilise food prices and adequately cater for any emergencies. NCPB was formed through amalgamation of the then Maize and Produce Board and Wheat Board on July 1, 1979 to streamline the management, handling and marketing of all grains.
Buying centres
President Uhuru Kenyatta early this month while in Mombasa raised the price of maize by Sh200 and ordered Agriculture ministry to open maize-buying centres to start receiving the produce from farmers across the country immediately.
There had been a public outcry in the Rift Valley after the Cabinet last November approved the purchase of two million bags of maize from local farmers at a price of Sh2,300 per 90k bag as part of efforts by the government to support local farmers. However, farmers especially in North Rift Valley protested the new prices, citing high cost of production.“The strategic food reserve has been authorised to purchase two million 90-kgs bags at Sh2, 500,” said Uhuru.
The president said following various government interventions and the good weather experienced in 2018, the country received a bumper harvest to the tune of 46 million bags.
“In addition, there is about 2.5 million bags carried over from the 2017 harvest. The government will simultaneously release 1.7 million 90kg bags of maize at Sh1, 600 and additional 300,000 bags of animal feed at Sh1, 400 per bag,” he added.
The market, Uhuru said is enjoying sufficient maize selling at between Sh1, 700 and Sh1, 800 per 90kg per bg. “With these interventions, I do not expect any changes in the existing price of unga,” stated the president. This translates to an average of Sh90 per 2kg maize flour packet of major maize flour brands.
Source: MediaMax Network