The rising cost of fertilizer continues to worry both farmers and political leaders in the North Rift as the region prepares for a planting season.
Uasin Gishu governor Jackson Mandago is now calling on the government to intervene and help ease the burden from farmers.
Mandago speaking during the ongoing Eldoret Agricultural Society of Kenya (ASK) Show warned that should the government fail to intervene, there will be a drastic drop in maize and wheat production.
“This cost of fertilizer is going to be a serious inhibitor. I am not confident that we shall produce the quantities that we have been producing because of the cost,” the governor said.
Farmers are expected to start planting as early as March 15th.
However, with the skyrocketing fertilizer prices, Mandago is still hoping the government will come to the rescue of farmers – for the sake of food security.
“We are very hopeful that the national government is going to do something so that farmers can be helped in terms of fertilizers subsidy so that we are able to produce,” he said.
The governor says without sufficient maize production, the country will face an acute shortage of food, with the dairy sector also likely to be hit hard.
Farmers in Uasin Gishu have joined Mandago in calling for subsidy on fertilizer whose current price is above Ksh6,000.
In a media briefing in Eldoret, the farmers led by the Uasin Gishu branch Kenya Farmers Association (KFA) said the government should move with speed and introduce a supplementary budget specifically to cushion them from high farm inputs prices.
“Government had promised to provide a subsidy and it’s now two weeks to planting season yet nothing has happened. There is no word for a supplementary budget in parliament what will happen now since people must plant, even if it is for subsistence farming?” Menjo asked.
The farmers say if the current situation is not addressed, they will have to reduce by half the acreage they have been planting.
“If you don’t want us to be beggars on the streets, please give us a subsidy,” former Member of Parliament Jesse Mais, who is a farmer from Kapseret said.
“We want that fertilizer to be even Ksh2,500 per bag. We depend on maize, dairy, and wheat. We have no other place,” he added.
The situation is expected to be worsened by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Most Kenyan fertilizer is imported from Ukraine.
