Subsidised fertiliser adds pain to maize growers’ plight

A maize farmer applying fertiliser to his maize crops. Farmers in the North Rift are incurring expenses as they top-dress their withering maize crop to salvage it after a mishap with subsidised fertiliser, as agriculture experts note that the adulterated fertiliser supplied by the government has caused uneven germination of maize, while also some farmers have their crops stunted or withered. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Farmers are struggling to correct the damage caused by the adulterated subsidised fertiliser they purchased from the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) at the beginning of the season.
  • The fertiliser crisis in the North Rift is threatening the country’s food security.
  • A technical team of soil and crop experts from Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services and Kenya Bureau of Standards conducted analysis on soil, crop and fertiliser samples which showed that the government subsidised fertiliser is not adulterated.

Farmers in the North Rift are incurring huge expenses as they top-dress their withering maize crop to salvage it following a mishap with subsidised fertiliser.

The farmers are struggling to correct the damage caused by the adulterated subsidised fertiliser they purchased from the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) at the beginning of the season.

James Rogony, a farmer in Uasin Gishu, said he spent Sh180,000 to purchase 100 bags of NPK fertiliser, and the same amount in buying top dressing fertiliser from NCPB but after the input turned out to be bad, he has had to buy another 50 bags of fertiliser from a private dealer for top-dressing, with each bag going at Sh2,300.

The crisis in the North Rift, which is the country’s leading maize producer, is threatening the country’s food security.

Agriculture experts noted the adulterated fertiliser supplied by the government has caused uneven germination of maize in some areas while for some farmers, their crops are stunted or have withered.

It is suspected that some unscrupulous traders bought fertiliser in bulk from the cereals board which they mixed with other materials before releasing it to farmers.

Kipkorir Menjo, Uasin Gishu County Kenya Farmers Association director, told Seeds of Gold that farmers are devastated by the strange phenomenon.

“They want to establish whether the fertiliser that was rejected by the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture last year at the port of Mombasa was destroyed or the same was supplied to the farmers, which might be the reason behind crop destruction.”

Erick Ogumo, the chairperson of Society of Crop Agribusiness Advisors of Kenya, termed the government’s casual manner of handling the situation suspect, noting it should punish the culprits behind the saga and compensate farmers.

AMOUNTS TO ECONOMIC SABOTAGE

“It is almost two months since a syndicate of fertiliser adulteration was unearthed by the police. The government even impounded some of the suspect fertiliser, but to date, nothing has come out of the investigations,” the expert said.

On May 24, while on a tour to affected farms in Uasin Gishu County, Dr Richard Lesiyampe, the Agriculture PS, ruled out a possible link between subsidised fertiliser and the discoloration of maize plants.

Dr Lesiyampe blamed heavy rains that had caused water-logging and slow release of the NPK 23:23 fertiliser’s nutrients to the root system of the young plants.

“This is a new fertiliser which takes three weeks to release the nutrients. We had above average rains that we suspect caused leeching,” the PS said.

Ogumo, however, differs with Dr Lesiyampe’s, terming his sentiments as misleading and inaccurate, and wants the government to come clean on what is going on.

“The position taken by the PS that the yellowing is as a result of excessive rains does not meet the criteria for diagnostic approaches and reporting of scientific matters.

We have always had rains and this kind of yellowing has never happened before,” he pointed out.

He noted that the saga amounts to economic sabotage.

“As is it now, farmers in the North Rift are losing confidence in the government’s ability to provide genuine subsidised fertilisers.”

A technical team of soil and crop experts from Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services and Kenya Bureau of Standards conducted analysis on soil, crop and fertiliser samples which showed that the government subsidised fertiliser is not adulterated.

Farmers have rejected the finding, noting they were not involved.

***

Additional reporting by Stanley Kimuge