Farmers in Rift Valley want the government to open maize buying centres in the region to allow them deliver their produce easily.
This, the farmers say, will save them from middlemen who have been buying the commodity at a throw away price.
The brokers have been selling maize to the National Cereals and Produce Board, locking out genuine farmers, they said.
The farmers hope to cash in on this year's NCPB purchase, where the board plans to buy more than two million bags of maize from the harvest.
Board CEO Newton Terer said they have bought about 70,000 bags from farmers in the North Rift, with each 90 kilos bag going for Sh 3,000.
“We have opened all our depots and buying of maize from farmers is going on smoothly,” Terer said. The country expects to harvest more than 34 million bags this year.
The NCPB will spend more than Sh8 billion to buy maize, with high-producing areas of Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia counties benefiting the most.
Meanwhile, wheat farmers are hoping to make a kill and have already delivered their produce in Eldoret and other NCPB depots.
The board is buying wheat at Sh3,000 per bag, an increase from the previous Sh2,800.
More than 250,000 maize, wheat and dairy farmers have been registered by the national government under a plan by the NCPB which will cover the whole country.
NCPB corporate affairs manager Rose Andanje said the board is keen to ensure only genuine farmers sell maize at its depots.
“The farmers must be registered by the ministry of agriculture to be put in the national register so that we know all those selling maize to the board”, Andanje said.