The chairman National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) Samwel Ragwa has assured farmers set to plant in March next year that they will receive the government’s subsidized fertilizer by November this year.

Ragwa said the board had already floated the tenders for the procurement of the fertilizer saying they were now assessing the quality to ensure that farmers get the right commodity and avoid the unfortunate situation that happened in the last planting season where the country got substandard fertilizer.

Speaking in Iten during a tour to ascertain the level of preparedness in the county in terms of distribution of the commodity, the chairman hailed the county for leading in the last mile fertilizer project by having 11 distribution centres with the area governor Wisley Rotich saying another three centres will be introduced.

He said with increased centres, farmers will be able to easily access the fertilizer, saving them the extra transportation cost.

The governor called on the NCPB to ensure there was ti
mely supply of fertilizer observing that by December, farmers should have gotten their fertilizer and in case a few come late, they should be comfortably served around February.

He also called on the board to work on the messaging system to ensure that farmers are informed on time when the fertilizer arrives to their centres.

The chairman said the board would liaise with the ministry of agriculture which does the messaging.

The north rift regional director Gilbert Rotich said with the country was expected to produce 47 million bags with the county producing 2.5 million bags.

Ragwa said the board would construct a depot in the county to enable farmers store their maize. Currently farmers are forced to take their maize to Uasin Gishu as there is no depot in the county.

The chairman expressed optimism that with the expected increased produce the price of maize flour will drop to below sh.100 for the 2kg packet.

Source: Kenya News Agency