60,000 bags of cheap fertiliser to be imported

The National Cereals and Produce Board is to import 60,000 bags of cheap fertiliser for farmers this season to keep down the price of maize.

The board has already imported 34,000 bags of the fertiliser, diammonium phosphate (DAP), which is expected at the port of Mombasa any time.

The cargo, to arrive in 64 containers, is part of the organisation’s efforts to stabilise fertiliser price, which usually pushes up the price of maize at the end of the harvest season.

In an e-mail to the Nation, the board’s spokesman Evans Wasike said the fertiliser will be sold at Sh2,000 per 50-kilogramme bag. He said the same quantity of calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) would sell at Sh1,400.

“NCPB is expecting 64 containers carrying 34,000 bags of DAP to berth at the port of Mombasa any time. The fertiliser is part of a consignment of 18,711 metric tonnes to be received from Japan under a government arrangement,” Mr Wasike said.

He said NCPB has 15,000 metric tonnes of DAP in Mombasa, which was received at the beginning of the year, and would be ferried to various areas in readiness for the planting season.

He said 9,246 metric tonnes of CAN had already been received and is set to be distributed to NCPB depots and government-appointed agents in various parts of the country.

The government, through NCPB, started subsidising fertiliser in 2008 and has brought the price of the input from a high of Sh6,000 to an average of Sh2,000 to improve production.

In the arrangement, farmers have to obtain clearance from district agricultural officers before they access the government subsidised fertiliser.

The managing director of the board, Prof Gideon Misoi, said the move was aimed at keeping away middlemen. He said farmers have to declare the acreage they want to cultivate so that the fertiliser is not diverted for other uses.