Posted on February, 7, 2019 at 07:59 am
By AGATHA NGOTHO
Lack of data on farmers is the main obstacle to accessing cheap fertiliser through the e-voucher payment system.
Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri confirmed on Monday that the government will not be buying fertiliser for this season.
“As a ministry, we were ready to procure the subsidised fertiliser by last year October but the process was halted due to investigations. However, all is not lost as we can still buy the fertiliser through specially permitted system under Article 114 of Public Procurement. But this can only be authorised by the Treasury to ensure farmers have fertiliser within 21 days to the time of planting because the rains are unpredictable,” Kiunjuri said.
In November last year, the Ministry of Agriculture had proposed to use e-vouchers for farmers to buy subsidised fertiliser from private agro-vet shops. This was to help weed out unscrupulous traders and help farmers access quality fertiliser.
The model may not take effect this planting season as the government is yet to finalise data collection for the beneficiaries of the subsidy programme.
In March last year, Deputy President William Ruto ordered the ministry to register all farmers within 90 days.
DP Ruto said this would lock out cartels that have been interfering with subsidy programmes.
According to the ministry, the process was rolled out immediately and completed by June. The information was then forwarded to the ICT ministry but nothing has been implemented to date.
This means that farmers will have to buy fertiliser at a higher price. Those from the North Rift will start planting from mid-February to March.The National Cereals and Produce Board sells a 50kg bag of subsidised planting fertiliser at Sh1, 800 and top fertiliser at Sh1, 500.
But Eustace Mureithi, Fertiliser Association of Kenya chairman, assured farmers the prices will not increase.
He said if the government will not supply the subsidy fertiliser as it has alluded, players in the private sector have the capacity to supply the commodity at an affordable price.
A 50kg bag of DAP fertiliser is currently selling at Sh2,800 while a bag of CAN is selling at Sh1,600 but Mureithi said the prices may vary up to Sh3,000 to Sh3, 500 due to transportation costs from the Port of Mombasa to Nairobi and other areas. This after the government said it is restructuring importation of subsidised fertiliser to make it easily accessible to farmers.
Finance CS Henry Rotich at the weekend said in future, farmers will be able to import their subsidised fertiliser through cooperative societies.
Source: The Star