Nation Team
4 January 2002
The maize glut in Kenya's bread basket districts worsened yesterday with the revelation that the National Cereals and Produce Board can only buy a small fraction of the maize farmers want to off-load.
The board can only buy 800,000 bags of maize while farmers are waiting to sell some five million bags.
Farmers in Uasin Gishu, Pokot, Trans Nzoia and Marakwet districts complained that they had been unable to sell their maize to the various NCPB depots due to stringent conditions set by the board.
Others complained that the price of between Sh990 and Sh1,060 being paid for a 90 kilogramme bag by the board, especially in North Rift and Nyanza, was too low compared to production costs.
The sale is crucial to the farmers especially at this time when they need to raise school fees, prepare their farms and buy inputs for the next planting season between March and April.
Some of the conditions set by the board include limiting moisture content to less than 13.5 per cent, one per cent foreign matter, one per cent broken matter and two per cent rotten, diseased and discoloured grains.
Last season, when the stringent conditions were not in play, rotten, diseased and discoloured grains of up to five per cent were acceptable.
An estimated Sh800 million has been set aside by the board to buy maize from farmers who have for the past two days been queuing at various depots.
The stringent conditions set by the board have raised a hue and cry among the farmers and Members of Parliament who have seen the move as an attempt to lock out majority of the farmers.
The board was buying the grain in North Rift and Nyanza at between Sh990 and Sh1,060 depending on whether it was bagged or not. The exercise will continue until funds allocated were exhausted.
"Local farmers are not used to producing maize for export and I fear majority of them will be locked out in the purchase programme if the board persists with its conditions,' Mr Ting'aa said.
According to the board maize supplied to its depots must contain moisture of no more than 13.5 per cent, one per cent foreign matter, one per cent broken matter and two percent rotten, diseased and discoloured grains.
Last season, when the stringent conditions were not in play, rotten, diseased and discoloured grains of up to five percent was acceptable.
Yesterday, the board said it would buy the maize at Sh1,000 per bag but farmers still described it as too low and demanded that it be raised to at least Sh1,250 like the previous season.
The long queues and congestion at NCPB depots in the North Rift would ease if other milling firms like Unga Ltd and middlemen increased their purchase price from between Sh400 and Sh600 to Sh900.
Although farmers have never been keen on quality of their maize as demanded by the board, the situation has been worsened by the unexpected rains which pounded the North Rift in November and extended to early December.
"The rains made maize stocks fall down leading to rotting and discolouring. It also interfered with drying as most people do not have drying facilities. I think the NCPB conditions would force people to go and clean the grain," said Mr Ting'aa.
However, the farmers interviewed said the Sh1,000 being offered by the board for a bag of maize was a relief but hoped that government would give more money to the body from the Treasury to improve the prices.
They said the Sh1,000 being paid could not enable them break even as they spent a minimum of Sh900 to maintain an acre of maize.
Lorries and tractors yesterday continued forming long queues in the NCPB depots in Kitale, Moi's Bridge and Eldoret but most of the farmers' produce was being rejected for failing to meet the board's conditions.
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