Maize farmers upbeat as ministry steps in

As the planting season starts in parts of Kenya this month, maize farmers are upbeat that more will be achieved this year in terms of yields and profits.

Timon Busienei, a large scale farmer from Uasin Gishu, said the National Cereals and Produce Board’s move to increase the price of grains last year was a good sign.

“Unlike other years when we went to the farms not knowing what we were going to get for our grain, last year was different because the bench-mark price was released in March just before the planting season started,” he said.

Mr Busienei ,who is also a member of the Cereals Growers Association (CGA), said farmers were also able to plan well for the season after the Agriculture Ministry subsidised fertiliser prices.

However, the farmers want the Agriculture Ministry to address challenges in the sector to avoid a repeat of last year’s mistakes that saw the country resort to maize imports to feed the starving masses.

Lack of extension officers

The farmers, mainly from the North Rift which is considered Kenya’s grain basket, said lack of extension officers to advise them on how to improve yields was one of the biggest challenges.

He asked the cereals board to ensure farmers were paid promptly for grain deliveries.

“With expeditious payment in December, farmers would be able to settle school fees early enough in January and concentrate their activities on farming,” he said.

“The only problem is that the input was limited to DAP (diammonium phosphate) and CAN (Calcium Ammonia) only and we want the ministry to purchase other brands so that farmers can choose what is suitable for their regions,” he added.

According to Mr Busienei, soils in some areas were acidic or too alkaline, which had affected yields.

“Soil PH (hydrogen-ion concentration) is very important in farming and without extension officers advising farmers on it then we risk getting a low yield,” he said.    

CGA deputy chief executive officer Anthony Kioko concurs with Mr Busienei that yields were likely to improve this year.

Mr Kioko told the Nation the acreage under maize was likely to increase from 1.5 million hectares last year to 1.7 hectares this year due to the NCPB’s move to increase the buying price of maize to Sh3,000 for a 90kg bag of maize.

He added that due to the availability of subsidised fertiliser, more farmers in the South Rift had turned to maize cultivation.

“Irrigation schemes are also opening up in places like Turkana for maize cultivation after the government subsidised fertiliser prices leading to a drop from Sh6,000 in the year 2008 to the current Sh2,500,” Mr Kioko said.

He said most maize farmers were comfortable with the benchmark price of Sh3,000.

“As farmers we don’t look at the end price but the low cost of production so that consumers do not bear the burden of paying more for flour,” Mr Kioko said.