Pain, Worry and Frustrations as Farmers Fail to Receive Fertilizer

Thousands of farmers from the Rift Valley (the food basket of Kenya) and Western Kenya are a worried lot.

The farmers are yet to receive planting fertilizer from the National Cereal and Produce Board even as the planting season continues.

Early last month, farmers complained that the government had stocked the silos with the fertilizer meant for top dressing other than that meant for planting.

“It is time to plant. The government, in its own wisdom or the absence of the same, saw it fit to bring us a top dressing fertilizer when what is needed is the one to plant,” said Mr. Malala, a farmer from Trans-Nzoia.

Farmers who have been lucky enough to receive the fertilizer say that it is like a drop in the ocean and will not help them.

“Can you imagine, you have 10 acres of land and someone is giving you three bags of fertilizer, isn’t that an insult?” Asked Mr. Malala.

The government had, however, confirmed that it has received more than one million bags of fertilizer at the port of Mombasa.

Farmers are worried that it will take time to supply the same and that the harvest this year might be lower than what was witnessed in 2017.

“This sector is controlled by cartels. They take the fertilizer from the government, create an imaginary shortage so that they can sell it back to us at an exorbitant prices,” said the furious Malala.

In 2017, maize harvest in the country dropped by more than a quarter following an attack from vicious armyworms that destroyed thousands of acres of maize in various counties in the country.

Failure to control the armyworms was blamed on the laxity of the government through the Ministry of Agriculture.

Already the weatherman has warned that the continuing rains might not be enough to support adequate farming this year.