Hope for Bumper Harvest As Farmers Receive Subsidized Fertilizer

By Jane Muia / Published September 28, 2022 | 3:53 pm

KEY POINTS

Farmers are purchasing a 50kg bag of DAP fertilizer at 3,500 shillings, CAN at 2,875 shillings, and urea at 3,500 shillings. At the same time, NPK will retail at 3,275 shillings, MOP at 1,775, and Sulphate of Ammonia at 2,220 shillings.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The farm input is expected to benefit 10,000 farmers in Nyeri county and will see 28,000 acres of land cultivated. The government allocated 8,400 bags of fertilizer for Nyeri county. However, only 1,680 bags have been received at the NCPB Kiganjo depot.

Farmers in various counties across the country have started to receive subsidized fertilizer from the National Cereal and Produce Board (NCPB) depots, as they anticipate improved food production.

Farmers in Nyanza and Western regions are buying bags of subsidized fertilizer in Bondo, Butere, Ugunja, Yala, and Kisii town depots.

In Nyeri county, farmers are purchasing the subsidized fertilizer from the Kiganjo NCPB depot, but the process has been reported to be slow owing to power outages which slowed down the verification of the farmers’ details. On the second day of distribution, more than 300 farmers turned up to buy the subsidized fertilizer but only a few managed to get it.

To get the subsidized fertilizer, farmers were urged to register at their respective sub-county agriculture offices.

In Homa Bay county, farmers are buying farm input from the three NCPB depots in Oyungis, Kendu Bay, and Homa Bay town. The county has received 1,120 bags of the commodity, with more bags expected to be delivered.

The high cost of farm inputs and depressed rains witnessed in the last seasons have seen farmers harvest little from their farms. Some farmers said they were forced to plant with insufficient fertilizer, a move that will highly impact production later in the year.

Farmers are hopeful for improved production in the next planting season if the rains will be fairly distributed. However, the Kenya Meteorological Department forecast shows that the country will receive erratic rains during the months of October, November, and December.