The Ministry of Agriculture has reduced the number of bags per producer to 10, a move which excludes the country’s large-scale farmers from the Ksh.5.7 billion fertilizer subsidy fund.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya said that farmers will be permitted to buy five bags of planting and top dressing fertilizers each, benefiting a huge number of growers.
CS Munya announced Friday that farmers will now pay Ksh.2,800 for a 50-kilo DAP fertilizer, down from Ksh.6,400 after a meeting at State House.
A farmer will need a 50 Kg Bag to plant an acre and another 50Kg bag for top dressing, implying that the five bags will only cover five acres.
When it comes to food security in the country, small-scale farmers have long been regarded as the most vulnerable group.
“We will be limiting the number of bags to 10 per farmer so that it can reach many of them,” said CS .
On April 1, CS Munya set aside Ksh.5.734 billion to subsidize 114,000MT (2,280,000 x 50kg bags) for farmers growing food crops spanning 1.13 million acres.
He (CS Munya) ordered fertilizers to be available at NCPB stores countrywide effective April 2, 2022, to ensure efficient delivery.
“These government agencies will sell the fertilizers at agreed subsidized prices to stabilize the prices of critical fertilizers to the Kenyan farmer,” said Munya in a statement Friday.
Kenya’s mitigation comes against the back of an uptick in world fertilizer price, a factor that has been anchored on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
