Maize millers have protested the one-month notice issued by the government to vacate from NCPB stores which they had hired in Eldoret.
Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri directed the NCPB to repossess the stores after the notice expired on Wednesday.
NCPB operations manager Cornel Ngelechei said the board needed the stores as it prepares to buy maize from farmers.
Millers' spokesman Swalleh Albety said they had been paying the NCPB for the stores since 1992.
Farmers led David Kiplagat have also asked the government to allow the more than 15 millers to continue using the stores.
Meanwhile, the NCPB is yet to open depots in order to buy maize from farmers.
The government has planned to buy two million bags of maize from farmers although they (farmers) are demanding the maize price be increased from Sh 2,300 announced last month to more than Sh 3,200 per bag.
"Farmers are now facing a real crisis because schools have reopened when they don't have cash and many of them will now opt to sell their produce to middlemen at throwaway prices," said director of the Kenya Farmers Association Kipkorir Menjo.
Middlemen have also invaded many parts of the North Rift to buy maize cheaply from farmers who are seeking money for school fees.
"As farmers, we are now caught up in a hard situation and we will have to incur heavy loses selling our maize to Middlemen", said farmer Zachariah Kiptoo.