Africa-Press – Kenya. Farmers across the country will continue to access subsidised farm inputs like fertiliser and seeds during the Easter Holiday.
Agriculture and Livestock Development Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi has directed all National Cereals and Produce and Kenya Seed outlets countrywide to remain open during this Easter Holiday due to the ongoing planting season.
The Meteorological Department has indicated that long rains have started in some parts of the country, signalling the start of the planting season.
“I have instructed all Kenya Seed and NCPB stores across the country to remain open and serve our hard-working farmers who are redeeming their e-vouchers for the subsidised fertiliser and seeds,” said Linturi.
Linturi reiterated that the government is supplying quality and standard fertiliser to farmers across the country.
He refuted reports that some farmers have been supplied with sub-standard fertiliser from government stores.
“All the fertilizer available at NCPB depots are well tested and certified by the laboratories,” he added.
The CS also encouraged farmers not to lose focus and continue to purchase the subsidized fertiliser, adding that the Kenya Kwanza government is a responsible regime that’s focused on improving the country’s food security.
“In 2023 we increased our maize yields to 60 million bags against the previous year’s harvest of 40 million bags due to the issuance of the DAP fertiliser,” Linturi said.
He added that in 2023 the scale of farming in the country increased by 200,000 acres because of the government’s subsidized fertiliser programme.
This comes a few days after the Kenya Bureau of Standards confirmed that fake subsidised fertiliser is in the market.
The admission was made by Kebs, the standardisation agency, before the National Assembly’s Agriculture Committee.
Kebs managing director Esther Ngari told the committee that innocent farmers had been duped into buying the fakes, now confirmed to be Diatomite.
The Kebs labels on them were also fake, she said.
So far the agency had impounded 5,840 bags of the alleged fake fertiliser bearing their standardisation marks.
Linturi has maintained that the subsidised fertiliser was scientifically tested and approved before importation to ensure that farmers got quality farm input for enhanced crop production.
“The team from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock joined me on a fact-finding mission in all the National Cereals and Produce Board stores in Olenguruone, Sirikwa and Elburgon to check whether there was sufficient subsidised fertiliser and its quality,” he said on Wednesday in Elburgon area of Molo Sub-county in Nakuru.
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