Government to release 200,000 bags of maize

They said they had been motivated to invest in large-scale agriculture of the crops after the Government promised that payment for the produce delivered to the cereals board would be prompt.

The announcement by Agriculture minister William Ruto that the cost of fertilisers would come down considerably has also prompted many farmers who wanted to shift to dairy farming to reconsider.

Hired tractors

Mr Ruto recently announced that the Government had successfully negotiated to have the price of Calcium Ammonium Nitrate reduced to Sh1,400 per 50-kg bag while that of  the imported Diammonium Phosphate would be reduced to Sh2,700 for a 50-kg bag, down from Sh6,000.

The fertilisers are expected to be in the country by the end of this month.

A spot-check in the region revealed that many farmers were busy preparing their farms and tractors had been hired to plough the land. The farmers appealed to the Government to regulate the oil industry to save consumers from exploitation.

Reported by Alphonce Shiundu, Samwel Kumba and Dennis Odunga