Kirinyaga farmers are upbeat that the subsidised fertiliser that has been availed to them in fulfilment of President William Ruto’s election pledge will help them increase crop production.
The county has registered 17,000 farmers in the NCPB database, with the number expected to go higher after the conclusion of the ongoing registration drive.
Speaking during Kirinyaga county assembly's inaugural sitting, Governor Anne Waiguru said her administration is commitment in supporting farmers to maximise agricultural production.
Once they are registered, the farmers are supposed to make their requisition and pay for the commodity after which the department of agriculture collates the data from farmers and transports the commodity from NCPB depot to ward centres for collection by individual farmers.
“To promote other areas of agriculture, we are at the forefront of lobbying for subsidised farm inputs to reduce the cost of production and enable farmers get better returns. We have secured more than 25,000 bags of fertiliser in our NCPB stores this month and we are in the course of distributing it to our farmers through our agricultural extension offices,” the governor said.
Farmers are looking forward to receiving the fertiliser in the hope it will help them reap better harvests in the coming season.
Albert Njeru from Njukii-ini ward thanked Governor Waiguru for making it easy for farmers to get the fertilisers by taking it to the ward levels.
He said the reduction in the price of DAP from Sh6,500 to Sh3,500 will go a long way in enabling farmers get better harvests in the coming season.
Magdaline Maina, a farmer from Kanyeki-ini said the subsidised commodity will enable her to expand on the area of land that she has been tilling, which will in turn increase harvest and fetch better income.
Farmers also thanked President Ruto for fulfilling his election pledge on subsidised fertilisers, saying small-holder farmers are pivotal in stimulating economic growth at the grassroots in support of the bottom-up economic model.
The ongoing registration at the ward level requires a farmer to prove land ownership and the size of land and the bags they would require to buy. Registered farmers have the option of walking into the NCPB depot to collect the fertiliser.
Kirinyaga county is a predominantly agricultural county with 52,890 hectares (130,694 acres) being used for subsistence farming.
The rising cost of farm inputs such as fertilisers has however made many farmers shy away from crop farming, but with interventions such as subsidised fertilisers, more farmers are expected to increase agricultural production.
Edited by A.N
