Farmers earn Sh2bn for maize delivered to depots

The National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) has bought more than 500,000 bags of maize estimated at Sh2 billion to replenish the Strategic Grain Reserve.

This comes in the wake of a rush by farmers to deliver their produce to the board to avert post-harvest losses caused by the ongoing rains.

The deliveries have been boosted by the waiving of drying facilities by the NCPB in its depots and prompt payment of Sh3,200 for a 90-kilogramme bag, up from Sh3,000 last year.

RAINS
The board normally charges Sh60 per 90kg for drying facilities to meet the required 13.5 per cent moisture content.

“The deliveries have been low in the past one month due to the heavy rains, which interrupted harvesting of the crop, but it has since improved and we had received 475,145 bags of the crop by mid last week,” Mr Titus Maiyo, the board’s corporate affairs manager told the Nation on phone on Friday.

The agency had received about 150,000 bags of maize by mid last month due to the rains that delayed harvesting of the crop.

The government allocated Sh7.1 billion to buy 2.4 million bags of the produce this year to refill the reserve stocks.

BROKERS
It allocated Sh1.6 billion last financial year, which the farmers termed as low, to mop up the excess grain, subjecting them to exploitation by middlemen who offer low prices.

Maize deliveries to NCPB have been boosted with introduction of stringent vetting to weed out middlemen.

A spot check by the Nation indicates that farmers have dropped their demand for a price increase and were delivering maize to the NCPB depots at Sh3,200 for a 90kg bag.

“The government should have considered buying maize at competitive rates to cushion us from increased production costs, including combating infestation of fall army worms which we had not budgeted for in our farming,” Mr Kiplimo arap Ruto from Kiplombe, Uasin Gishu County, said.

DROUGHTS
According to the 2017 Economic Survey, Kenya produced 37.1 million 90kg bags of maize in 2016 and had projected 40 million bags this season as farmers increased the acreage due to better prices offered by the government.

But a combination of one of the worst droughts in recent times early this year, the fall armyworm invasion after the planting season and prolonged rains as farmers prepared to harvest conspired to reduce the harvest.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett early this month estimated post-harvest losses to be at 20 per cent of the total projected harvest.

This means that the country is likely to import maize to plug the deficit.