Subsidised fertiliser to arrive by December, CS Bett assures

Preparations are on high gear to ensure subsidised planting fertiliser for the next year season gets to the farmers on time.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Willy Bett, sought to assure farmers that the government was committed to ensure that the fertiliser arrives in the country on time.

“I want to ensure the farming community in the whole country that preparations are in high gear to ensure that the fertiliser for the coming season arrives on time,” he said.

The CS noted that the country has been faced with a perennial problem of late planting, adding that their goal is to have the fertiliser in the country by December to ensure farmers plant on time.

“We want to have the fertiliser in the country by December before the season begins because the perennial issue of late planting due to late arrival of inputs should not be an issue anymore,” he said.

The CS noted that the government is committed to ensuring that farming is profitable.

The government imports 600,000 tonnes of subsidised fertiliser annually and later distributes it to small scale farmers in the country.

Kenya is set to save Ksh3 billion annually on the imports of fertiliser as soon as the Japanese conglomerate Toyota Tsusho Corporation starts production at their Eldoret plant.

Bett noted that the construction of the multibillion facility is complete and is expected to be opened by President Uhuru Kenyatta later this year.

This comes just one day after the Kenya Cereals and Produce Board (KCPB) and the National Assembly Committee on Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries disposed of 370 bags of condemned fertiliser at Tiwi, Kwale County.

The consignment was part of 30,000 tonnes of fertiliser that was imported by the government in February this year to be distributed to farmers at a subsidised rate.

The consignment was disposed of at a 40acre farm belonging to the KCPB in Tiwi, Kwale County.

KCPB Coast Region Manager Lameck Oyugi said the fertiliser would be disposed of agriculturally by the farmers who till the government farm.

“You cannot burn fertiliser; it is a chemical thing that is not easy to burn, you only dispose of it by applying it agriculturally,” he said.

He said that National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) recommended that the consignment be applied on a government farm.

“The farmers who are tilling this government land will use it so it will benefit them,” he added.