Blame game as coffee farmers miss out on cheaper fertiliser

Coffee farmers are paying higher prices for fertiliser, even as millions of bags of the subsidised farm input lie idle in government stores due to lack of a coordinated approach between different agencies.

Small-holder farmers who were expected to benefit from the low-priced fertiliser have been forced to buy the same from retailers or their respective co-operative societies.

They were to start applying it last month following on-set of the long rains but most societies failed to procure the supplies from the government.

Normally, co-operative societies procure such farm inputs on behalf of members but some management officials are blaming a presidential committee appointed to implement the recommendations of a coffee task force for the mess.

The panel last year made several recommendations aimed at turning around the ailing coffee sub-sector. One of the suggestions by the team chaired by Prof Joseph Kieyah was to have outstanding loans owed to various creditors by farmers written off. The President has since ordered that the recommendation be implemented.

Improving production and quality of coffee has proved a challenge to the committee as most farmers cannot access the subsidised fertiliser.

A circular was issued by the presidential committee early in the year directing all county governments in areas where coffee is grown to liaise with the management of coffee farmers’ co-operative societies and ask them to prepare data of all their members indicating how much fertiliser they required.

“The data was to be sent to the Ministry of Agriculture and, on approval, farmers through their co-operatives are required to collect the subsidised fertiliser from the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) stores,” Prof Kieyah said, adding that NCPB has the sole responsibility of distributing such farm inputs.

Some societies are said to have complied with the committee’s request but most of them have not.

The management of Gikanda Coffee Farmers Cooperative Society in Nyeri maintains that it complied with the circular by submitting names of their members and the amount of fertiliser they required to the County Government of Nyeri.

But the society’s chairman, Mr Mukuha Ciera, claimed they could not wait for the whole process of distribution to be completed after realising that it would take time.

“We submitted the data as requested but we realised that it would take a lot of time to distribute the fertiliser. When the rains started, we decided to buy our own from commercial sellers,” Mr Ciera told Sunday Nation.

Mutheka Farmers Society from the same county claims that even after submitting their data, they are yet to receive communication from the county government.

But the County Executive in charge of Agriculture in Nyeri County, Mr Robert Thuo, said the coffee co-operative societies’ management officials were not telling the truth.

“I informed all the societies on time and I even got the authority of the Agriculture CS confirming that all societies had been allowed to go for the fertiliser”, said Mr Thuo.

“We have written to NCPB instructing them to allow Nyeri coffee societies to purchase subsidised fertiliser for their members collectively,” Mr Edwin Oseko said in a communication to Mr Thuo on April 20, which he signed on behalf of the Agriculture Principal Secretary.

This was in response to a previous letter dated March 30, 2017 that the County Executive wrote to the Agriculture PS requesting him to allow co-operative societies in Nyeri to access the subsidised fertiliser.

Nyeri has the largest population of smallholder coffee farmers who market their produce through cooperative societies.

A 50kg bag of CAN (calcium ammonium nitrates) fertiliser is being sold at Sh2,600 as indicated in the invoice the grower showed Sunday Nation.

Some commercial retailers are selling it at Sh2,400 while the subsidised one goes for Sh1,500.

CAN is the fertiliser that farmers in Nyeri, Murang’a, Embu, Kirinyaga and Kiambu are required to apply during this period, known as the fly season or mini season in the coffee year. The fertiliser is supposed to help ripen the coffee berries, which would be ready for harvesting any time this month.

But for growers in areas like Meru and Machakos where coffee picking is at its peak — the main season — they are using NPK fertiliser, also known as nitrogenous fertiliser, in preparation for flowering in July.

A 50kg bag of the nitrogenous fertiliser from Government’s stores costs Sh1,800 but traders are selling it from Sh2900 to Sh3,000.

In Murang’a County, some co-operative societies, according to the chairman of Murang’a Farmers Co-operative Union, Mr Francis Ngone, have bought the subsidised fertiliser.