NCPB to sell grain after two years in bid to eliminate post harvest losses

The government has announced plans to overhaul grain management in the country to minimize post-harvest losses.

This as concerns continue to rise over the quality of grain held in the strategic grain reserve as well as by private sector players.

According to Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett, the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) will in future hold grain for a maximum of two years before disposing it or selling to animal feed millers.

The focus of post-production activities for grains should be on adapting the new technologies and ensure the stock has specific environments and are economically viable.

“For a long time what used to happen because of management of stocks at NCPB you could find them holding grains as long as eight years where the stocks would deteriorate over time and would be termed not fit for human consumption,” Mr Bett said.

NCPB will be expected to enhance the quality of foods stored in the silos, creating a Strategic Reserve Oversight Board to oversee storage of foods that are used for relief emergencies.

Mr Bett said old stock in the depots is being sold off to raise funds for purchasing fresh stock and also create space at national cereals and produce board to store the fresh stock.

“We have disposed old stock .Whatever was good was sold to the millers for consumption and what was not good sold to feed millers for animal feed. That has been cleared as we speak. The strategy now every two years is to clear stock that is in the silos, we will have no stock in the silos for more than two years,” he said.

The government has at the same time launched a program to reduce by half cases of post harvest losses in the country in a bid to cushion farmers form this misery.

“The average loss is about 30 percent. We have adapted a continental target of reducing it by half,” he said.

He was speaking on the sidelines during a forum to discuss an upcoming congress on post harvest losses in Africa.

The event will be held between the 28^th and 31^st March 2017.

Additional reporting by Denis Otieno