Posted on February, 15, 2019 at 10:04 am
By BONIFACE MWANGI
Maize farmers who have delivered their harvest to the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) will start receiving their payment from mid-next week, the Agriculture ministry has announced.
According to Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri, though the National Treasury is yet to release funds meant for the purchase of maize, they had reached a deal to start paying the Sh5 billion from next week.
“I am requesting farmers who have surrendered their produce to our NCPB depots and silos to be patient. By mid-next week we will pay all their dues,” he told the Nation in an interview at his office on Thursday.
By Thursday, NCPB had received 62,000 (50kg) bags from small-scale farmers worth Sh86.1 million. The government plans to use Sh5 billion to purchase two million 90kg bags at Sh2,500 per bag.
BAG LIMIT
This is after a directive from President Uhuru Kenyatta was issued to the ministry to have NCPB start buying last year’s maize harvest from farmers.
However, NCPB is yet to start receiving maize from large-scale farmers, but Mr Kiunjuri guaranteed that they will open the gates soon for them.
When he appeared before the National Assembly Agriculture Committee on Monday, Mr Kiunjuri explained that they first want to deal with small-scale farmers who are only allowed to bring less than 400 bags.
The large-scale farmers, however, have an advantage and will surrender more than 400 bags provided they pass all the vetting requirements.
At the same time, he reiterated that they will continue to apply stringent measures during the vetting exercise so as to avoid last year’s mistakes of receiving maize from traders instead of genuine farmers.
DELAY
On Thursday, one of the farmers from the North Rift region, Mr Simon Ng’eno, decried rigid vetting conditions noting that it causes delay in delivery of their produce to most of the stores.
But in a rejoinder, Mr Kiunjuri said there will be no shortcuts; and that the same list of vetted farmers will be used next year.
The list will also be used in distribution of fertiliser stored at NCPB depots.
Mr Kiunjuri said they were compelled to introduce stringent measures to keep off unscrupulous traders and to avoid mistakes that have rocked NCPB since the government started buying maize from farmers.
Farmers are required to produce a national Identity card, PIN, title deed or lease agreement for vetting.
Source: Daily Nation