Wheat farmers have something to smile about this season, after the government announced a Sh350 increase in the producer price for locally grown wheat, pushing it up to Sh5,100 per 90-kilogramme bag, a jump from last year’s Sh4,750.
The revised price, arrived at through talks coordinated by the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) together with the Cereal Growers Association (CGA), wheat farmers and millers, is meant to put more money in farmers’ pockets while giving them enough incentive to keep growing wheat.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the figure represents a compromise that takes into account the competing interests of everyone involved, farmers who need better returns, processors who need a steady supply, and consumers who don’t want prices spiraling out of control.
“The agreed price will apply at designated aggregation centres where the Government has commenced the ongoing wheat mop-up exercise ahead of any wheat importation, reaffirming its commitment to prioritising locally produced grain and protecting domestic farmers,” Kagwe said.
According to the CS, the strategy is deliberately weighted in favour of homegrown grain, with the goal of both rewarding farmers fairly and keeping millers and consumers supplied without major disruptions.
More than 2,000 farmers across Narok, Nakuru, Meru, Laikipia, Nyandarua and Uasin Gishu stand to benefit directly from the new pricing.
The timing is notable, coming at a moment when the country is bracing for a smaller wheat harvest. The government now expects around one million 90-kilogramme bags this season, a sharp drop from the 1.7 million bags harvested last year.
Kagwe attributed the decline to a mix of factors, mainly poor weather, but also a growing number of farmers switching over to barley after it fetched roughly Sh5,300 a bag last season. That price has since cooled to somewhere between Sh4,200 and Sh4,500 a bag, which the CS says has made wheat farming a more attractive proposition again by comparison.
The government is banking on the new price, alongside a handful of other measures, to help breathe life back into the wheat sector and gradually wean the country off imported grain.
Part of that plan involves widening access to crop-specific fertiliser subsidies, extending support to both small-scale growers and larger commercial farmers.
There’s also work underway to fast-track research and distribution of higher-yielding, more climate-resilient wheat varieties, a joint effort between the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) and private seed companies.
Additional interventions on the table include boosting mechanisation, pushing for land commercialization, particularly in Laikipia, and stepping up efforts to deal with quelea birds, which have long been a headache for grain farmers.
The ministry is also nudging farmers toward long-term land leasing arrangements for commercial wheat production, while discouraging the kind of excessive land subdivision that makes large-scale farming harder to sustain.
Climate-smart farming practices are being promoted as well, to help growers cope better with unpredictable weather and lift overall productivity.
Even with these efforts, growth in wheat production this season is expected to come in at around five per cent, a more modest figure than the ten per cent initially projected.
The government says the downward revision simply reflects the toll that bad weather and other setbacks have taken on the sector this year.
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