The government through the Ministry of Agriculture has instituted various measures to reduce crop post-harvest losses in the wake of the bumper harvest expected following the long rains and the application of the subsidized fertilizers that it provided to farmers.
Speaking in Uasin Gishu County during a tour of National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) Depots, the outgoing Principal Secretary for Crop Development Kello Harsama, noted that the government has procured 100 dryers to help farmers dry their maize and reduce post-harvest losses.
The PS who has since been moved to ASAL and the Regional Development ministry in the same capacity said farmers in North Rift are expected to harvest over 23 million bags of maize noting that NCPB has the capacity to store the produce during the harvesting period.
He asked cereal farmers not to fall prey to brokers who want to purchase their produce at a throwaway price in the wake of a bumper harvest in maize-growing regions.
Harsama noted that there was no cause for alarm over the delay by the government to announce the maize price per 90kg as the government would make public the minimum buying price for the maize produced before the end of this week.
He regretted that some farmers had fallen prey to brokers from neighboring countries of Uganda and Tanzania who were offering them Sh3,500 per 90kg bag of maize.
“Don’t be deceived that the market price of maize will drop due to the delay by the government to announce the minimum buying price for your maize produce as the price might shoot up due to high demand for maize globally,” he assured.
The government, Harsama said was aware of what the farmers were going through and that is why it is committed to protect them from exploitation by brokers who have started to flood the market.
“We are expecting a bumper harvest of more than 44 million bags of maize across the country and that is why we are asking our farmers not to rush by disposing of their produce to brokers because there is a good market ahead for their produce,” said Kello.
“The government will continue to make the maize farming in the country profitable and also ensure our farmers are protected at all costs from brokers who are taking advantage of their plight to buy their produce at cheaper prices,” he said.
He revealed that the government has already consulted with other stakeholders in the agricultural sector to buy maize from farmers at Sh 4,500 per 90kg bag of maize.
On his part, the NCPB, Managing Director Joseph Kimote, said that once the government gives the NCPB a go-ahead to buy maize they will ensure that they will use an elaborate system to ensure a seamless process of buying the cereals from the farmers.
“We will adopt a queuing system of first in first served and use of an automated system which will ensure nothing is done manually as everything will be done within the system to allow transparency and accountability,” he noted.
“We will ensure that we buy maize based on the available budget so that we do not take somebody’s maize when we have no money to pay them immediately. We will utilize the automated channel of paying, like M-PESA and Real-time Gross Settlement (RTGS) as we do not write cheques anymore,” he noted.
Kimote noted that the storage capacity of the NCPB is the biggest storage pour house in the country with approximately over 20 million bags of 90kg storage capacity is 1.8 million metric tonnes both in conventional stores and in silos.
ENDS
