KTDA Receives Ksh 5.2 Billion Fertilizer From Russia

The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) has received fertilizer worth 5.2 billion shillings from Russia for sale to farmers at subsidized rates.

The landing cost of a 50 kg bag of the farm input is 5,617 shillings but will be sold to farmers at 3,500 shillings as directed by the government. The 940,000 bags is in addition to the 720,000 bags the agency received last month.

“We are receiving the consignment on Tuesday to supply to farmers at a subsidy rate as it was directed by the government,” said a KTDA official.

The commodity will be transported via the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from Mombasa to Nairobi for packaging and will be distributed among smallholder farmers. This follows a partnership between KTDA and Kenya railways that will see KTDA-managed factories transport their produce via the SGR line from Nairobi to the Port of Mombasa for onward export.

Farmers have always decried the inflated cost of the commodity which triggered an increase in the production cost. In his intervention, president William Ruto assured farmers of enhanced subsidized fertilizer to boost production. Farmers are now purchasing a 50kg bag of fertilizer at 3,500 shillings from around 7,000 shillings before the subsidy.

The National Cereal and Produce Board (NCPB) has also continued to supply the commodity to farmers across the country in a move meant to increase food production. To access the subsidized fertilizer, farmers were urged to register at their respective sub-county agriculture offices, with the activity still underway. Farmers must show their own land, its size, and the bags they need.

Kenya requires about 650,000 tonnes of fertilizer annually for enhanced production. 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.

In the tea sector, the subsidized fertilizer will play a critical role in the production of the leaf which has been hailed for earning the country high revenue alongside the horticulture sector. Last year, tea accounted for about 19.6 percent of the total domestic exports valued at 130.9 billion shillings. According to the Economic Survey 2022 by the Kenya National Bureau of Statics (KNBS), this was an increase from the 130.3 billion shillings recorded in the previous year.