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Kenya: Minister Pledges to Back Farmers
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The East African Standard (Nairobi)
22 April 2008
Posted to the web 21 April 2008
Osinde Obare And Robert Wanyonyi
Nairobi
Agriculture minister, Mr William Ruto, has promised to help farmers achieve the projected ten per cent economic growth.
He said the milestone would be achieved if farmer's problems were addressed.
"The economy will be spurred through cheap food prices and that will only be possible when farmers also spend less on production," said Ruto.
He was speaking in his Eldoret North constituency on Wednesday. He thanked the residents for voting for him and Prime Minister Raila Odinga in last year's election.
Ruto promised to co-operate with fertiliser traders to ensure prices are lowered.
"The maize planting season is over, but we will seek affordable top dressing fertiliser in three weeks," he said.
The MP said days for crooked fertiliser importers are numbered.
"A bag of DAP fertiliser should not cost Sh4,000. It cannot just add up," said Ruto.
He also asked farmers who were still holding last year's produce to deliver it to the National Cereals and Produce Board.
The minister assured farmers that the board had paid all arrears and needed more maize.
Meanwhile, most farmers in the North Rift are planting maize without fertiliser. Fertiliser dealers are still selling a 50kg bag of Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) between Sh3,800 and Sh4,000.
The farmers say they cannot afford the DAP fertiliser.
"I have decided to plant without fertiliser because I cannot afford it," lamented Mr Charles Osoti, a farmer at Kapkoi in Trans Nzoia District.
A survey by The Standard revealed that many farmers are planting without DAP.
Other farmers use manure from the Agricultural Development Corporation farms.
A Kenya National Federation of Agricultural Producers official, Mr Tom Nyagechaga, said a food shortage was likely.
He said farmers had reduced their production acreage since they cannot afford the cost of farm inputs.
Some maize farms were unploughed since many people were displaced during post-election violence.
Nyagechaga urged Ruto to save farmers from exploitation by unscrupulous fertiliser dealers.
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And two Cabinet ministers have also warned that the high cost of fertiliser is likely to cause a food shortage.
Foreign Affairs minister, Mr Moses Wetangula, and Lands Assistant minister, Mr Bifwoli Wakoli, said some areas were already experiencing food shortage.
Speaking in Bungoma District, the ministers lamented that unscrupulous businessmen had capitalised on the recent post-election skirmishes to push up fertiliser prices.
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