Farmers will have to wait longer to get fertiliser for this planting season due to a delay in clearance at the port.
This follows introduction of new guidelines the Kenya Bureau of Standards on fertiliser inspection in a move to curb fake fertiliser getting into the country.
Initially, certification or inspection of fertiliser was done at the country of origin but with the new regulations, KEBS will be required to certify all the consignments again at the port of entry.
This according to Eustace Muriuki, Fertiliser Association of Kenya chairman is causing a delay yet the planting season for the short rains crops has already started in some parts of the country.
“The clearance process is longer, taking almost two months and importing companies are paying millions of shillings daily as they wait for clearance. Eventually farmers will bear the cost as this could increase the price of the fertiliser in the market,” he said.
He was speaking on Wednesday during the Kenya Fertiliser Roundtable Conference in Nairobi.
Muriuki said besides delay in clearance at destination ports, the fertiliser industry has been faced with other constrains including price distortions and lack of government's support to local fertiliser manufactures.
He said use of fertiliser in Kenya was below 200,000 metric tonnes annually before 1990 when it was liberalised but is now at 450,000 metric tonnes
and has the potential of getting to one million metric tonnes.
“To achieve this, the government should consider subsiding all fertilizer imports and setting retail prices, or subsidising fertiliser for only small scale farmers with less than two acres of land or withdrawing the subsidy program and purchasing cereals on timely basis and at higher prices,” said Muriuki.
Tim Njagi, a researcher from Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development- Egerton University said the fertiliser subsidy program should be redesigned to make more impact to farmers and increase productivity.
“The government should redesign the fertiliser subsidy program and invest in the right people and the right objective. Providing the fertiliser is not a guarantee that farmers are using it correctly. Most farmers apply only one type of planting and another one for top dressing fertiliser. But ideally, they should apply two types of fertiliser for planting and two types of fertiliser for top dressing,” he said.