• Kenya produces 152,000 metric tonnes annually against a consumption of 650,000 metric tonnes.
• 75 per cent of rice consumed in the country is imported at a value of over Sh22.5 billion per year.
Image: MAURICE ALAL
The government has set aside Sh200 million to buy rice for the Strategic Food Reserve.
This is the first time the state will be buying rice for the grain reserve which has only been buying maize from farmers in the past years.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri said the government will purchase reasonable quantities just like it does with maize.
While visiting the expansive Mwea Irrigation Scheme, Kiunjuri said officials from the SFR board will be visiting rice producers in all the schemes in the coming days to discuss the prices.
Food Reserve board chairman Noah Wekesa yesterday confirmed that the government has set aside Sh200 million to buy rice from farmers to help stabilise prices in the market.
“The money has been set aside to buy rice during this season to help stabilise the prices of rice in the market. This is also because besides maize, rice is also an important food in the SFR,” Wekesa told the Star on the phone.
SFR also purchases and stores other food products like beans, corned beef and powdered milk besides maize and rice for emergencies.
Rice farmers have been grappling with low prices due to an influx of cheap imported rice mainly from Pakistan.
A kilo of rice is currently retailing at between Sh140 and Sh150.
Donald Munene, a rice farmer from Mwea, said the imported rice has interfered with the market prices. He said farmers have not been able to reap the benefits.
“We have been farming rice for decades and it is high time the government bought the produce just like it does with maize farmers. We urge the government to set good prices for us,” Munene said.
John Kimani, a rice breeder from the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation, said growth rate in rice consumption is high at 13 per cent compared to maize which is at one per cent and wheat at four per cent.
“Production of rice in Kenya is approximately 152,000 metric tonnes, while consumption is above 650,000 metric tonnes per year, leading to over 75 per cent importation valued at Sh22.5 billion per year,” he said.
The CS assured farmers that the ministry will work with county governments from all rice producing counties to improve road netorks in schemes that have been destroyed by the ongoing rains.
Kiunjuri said even if agriculture is devolved, the national government will chip in to help farmers reduce post-harvest losses in the paddies.
Farmers in Mwea Irrigation Scheme have been affected by the ongoing rains and this has interfered with the harvesting of the grain, which accounts for 80 per cent of all the rice produced in the country.