Farm inputs buying system to cut off rogue traders
What you need to know:
- Agriculture experts said the system will eliminate unscrupulous traders who usually buy huge stocks of fertiliser from the National Cereals and Produce Board and sell it to farmers at high prices.
The provision of subsidised fertiliser and other farm inputs will be automated.
Farmers and agro-input suppliers will be registered to enable fast communication between and among them.
Already, the government is scouting for a firm that will offer system development and capacity building for the electronic-inputs subsidy management platform.
Potential suppliers of the system are supposed to tender their bids on or before September 5.
“The selected firm will enhance subsidy inputs management through enabling central database development on both farmers and agro-inputs suppliers. The system will further enable monitoring, evaluation and dissemination of relevant information to stakeholders,” the advert that run on Thursday, noted.
UNSCRUPLOUS TRADERS
Agriculture experts said the system will eliminate unscrupulous traders who usually buy huge stocks of fertiliser from the National Cereals and Produce Board and sell it to farmers at high prices.
“The weak link has been that agro-vets would buy all the fertiliser from the board and later sell to farmers beating the subsidy system. The agro-vets will now get only stocks they can sell to their customers,” Mr Ephraim Wachira, an agriculture expert, said.
The system will have a portal providing query capabilities and generation of customised reports to enable interaction with farmers and the Ministry of Agriculture through short codes, SMS or emails.
