Agriculture officials in North Rift fear that cereal production will drop by a big margin after the government decided not to import subsidised fertiliser.
The input is likely to go up by more than 200 per cent in the open market.
The National Cereals and Produce Board has been selling the subsidised DAP fertiliser (for planting) at Sh1,200 per 50 kg bag. It is likely to retail at as much as Sh4,000 a bag, come planting season next month.
Uasin Gishu Agriculture executive Samuel Yego yesterday said it will be impossible for the majority of farmers to buy fertiliser.
“Farmers are facing a real crisis now. The cost of production is high and they have no market for their produce. Unless there is another intervention, maize growing will be an unprofitable venture,” he said.
Strategic Food Reserves Fund chairman Noah Wekesa has said although the government had imported fertiliser over the years, this time it will not be possible because of challenges in procurement.
“This year it will not possible for the government to bring in the subsidised fertiliser and farmers should now be prepared to buy it from other sources in the open market,” he said.
Wekesa spoke in Eldoret after touring the NCPB depot in the region to oversee purchasing of maize from farmers by the board.
Governors Jackson Mandago of Uasin Gishu and Patrick Khaemba of Trans Nzoia say the decision not to subsidise fertiliser is tragic.
“It’s a real crisis and that is why we have been preaching the gospel of diversification. It’s time our farmers stop relying on maize and venture into other crops from which they can earn better,” Mandago said.
The governors from 13 maize growing counties will be meeting soon to discuss new measures in the cereals sector.
Last week, Attorney General Kihara Kariuki advised the Ministry of Agriculture not to import fertiliser because of flawed procurement processes involving companies contracted to do the importation.
Kihara wrote to the ministry advising that the tendering for the importation had been fraudulent and public money would be lost if procurement for this year’s fertiliser was allowed to go on.
A director of the Kenya Farmers Association, Kipkorir Menjo, says farmers will also meet next week to discuss the fertiliser crisis.
“NCPB usually helps to keep prices lower through the supply of the subsidised fertiliser and now that there will be no importation, prices will rise at the time farmers start planting,” Menjo said.