The newly sworn-in President William Samoei Ruto has maintained that the affordability and availability of farm inputs like fertiliser and seeds, will be a top priority in his government.
In his address to the nation, Ruto said that there are arrangements already being made to ensure that the prices of fertiliser will be lowered from the current price of Sh6,500 to Sh3,500 per 50kg bag.
“Our priority intervention, therefore, is to make fertilizer, good-quality seeds, and other agricultural inputs affordable and available. For the short rain season, we have already made arrangements to make 1.4 million bags of fertilizer available at Sh3,500 for a 50kg bag down from the current Sh6,500. This will be available from next week,” Ruto said.
He also called on county governments in Eastern, Central and Western regions to cooperate with the national administration in ensuring their farmers are able to access fertiliser.
“I appeal to county governments in Eastern, Central and Western regions, to work with us in making sure that the fertiliser is available to farmers,” he said.
The President further mentioned that his administration had already taken several measures in quest of lowering the high cost of inputs in order to boost production in tea farms.
“Additionally to cushion tea farmers, we have made arrangements with KTDA to immediately supply tea farmers with fertilizer at Sh3,500 down from Sh6,500. This is our initial intervention, we will be doing more for the medium term and the long term,” he added.
Concerning the ongoing drought ravaging various countries in Africa, including Kenya, the president said that his administration will be enacting various procedures to ensure that no county in the country succumbed to the emergency phase of the drought disaster.