- KTDA Holdings chair David Ichoho said a 50kg bag of the fertiliser will go for slightly above Sh3,000.
- But if the government consented to the Sh1 billion subsidy, farmers will be able to access a bag at a reduced cost of about Sh2,500.
About 650,000 small-scale tea farmers in Kenya have received a Sh1 billion subsidy on fertiliser imported by Kenya Tea Development Agency.
On Monday, KTDA requested the subsidy from the government to enable it to supply 65,000 tonnes of fertiliser to farmers at a lower price.
KTDA Holdings chair David Ichoho said a 50kg bag of the fertiliser will go for slightly above Sh3,000, but if the government consented to the Sh1 billion subsidy, then farmers will be able to access a bag at a reduced cost of about Sh2,500.
Ichoho stated that the final cost of a 50kg bag of fertiliser will be determined by a number of factors, including clearing and transport costs, as well as marine and overland insurance costs.
On Wednesday, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya said the government has considered the request by KTDA to ensure that fertiliser gets to the farmers at good prices and on time.
“The government is going to support the farmers with Sh1 billion subsidy. This would reduce the prices of the fertiliser by at least Sh400 per 50kg,” Munya said.
He spoke at the port of Mombasa during an inspection tour of the packaging of the fertiliser.
The CS flagged off part of the fertiliser, which is being transported to Nairobi via the Standard Gauge Railway freight trains.
This is the first time fertiliser is transported to Nairobi via the SGR, a move that the CS said was efficient and cost-effective.
“All the fertiliser will be transported via SGR to Nairobi where trucks will do the last mile of distributing it to factories and the small farmers. The exercise should be done by September 15,” said Munya.
The CS said that the sector was undergoing a lot of reforms and rejuvenation aimed at improving the earnings of small farmers.
“The primary player along the tea value chain is the farmer; if the farmer is making nothing then that sector is not sustainable,” Munya said.
The fertiliser was being offloaded from MV Nikitis, a vessel operated by the Express Shipping and Logistic East Africa Limited.
Kenya Railways operations manager Thomas Ojijo stated that they had already moved 200 wagons of the fertiliser since Monday and were expecting to move 30 more by Wednesday evening.
A single-block train locomotive was moving 2,200 tons of fertiliser, with each wagon carrying about 70 tons, which translates to about 31 wagons per trip in the eight-hour journey from Mombasa to Nairobi.
“We have dedicated about 80 wagons for this cargo and have been doing 100 TEUs (50 wagons) per day. We also have the two double-deck locomotives which can do 150 TEUs (70 wagons) in a day,” Ojijo said.
Kenya is facing a shortage of 400,000 bags of fertiliser as the initial request was for about 1.7 million bags, according to KTDA.
The NPK 26:5:5 chemically compounded fertiliser was procured directly from two international companies, Ameropa AG of Romania and Indagro SA of Switzerland, at a total cost Sh2.9 billion.
Last year, the agency did not procure fertiliser for smallholder farmers as a result of logistical challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Edited by Henry Makori