Addressing journalists at Kilimo house yesterday, Kiunjuri said the government is committed to continuously support farmers and address any challenges that may arise.
The CS said the government had projected to purchase two million bags of maize and budged Sh7 million for the same. He said the government as per March 22 had purchased 3.4 million bags worth Sh10.4 billion. Out ot his, farmers have been paid Sh7.05 billion leaving a balance of Sh3.93 billion.
He said the government had projected low production due to prolonged drought and invasion of fall army worm in some parts of the country.
"I had previously promised that the Ministry will reallocate Sh 1 billion to pay the farmers and avail other resources through a supplementary budget, which is yet to be passed," he said.
He said the Cerials Board has also directed to reallocate maize from stores in North Rift to other storage facilities. Kiunjuri acknowledged that despite taking the above measures, it has been noted there are long queues still being seen at the stores.
"Last week we had 150 lorries queuing at our Nakuru stores, 124 in Eldoret, 150 in Moi’s Bridge, and 35 in Bungoma. Given this situation, I directed the board to speed up the process of clearing this backlog. By Tuesday March 20th, all these trucks had been off-loaded. But subsequently, queues have become longer. For example, yesterday we had only 40 trucks lined up in Nakuru. This morning they are 150. In Eldoret they are 174 and 132 in Moi’s Bridge. The question is, where did these lorries come from overnight?" he wondered.
Kiunjuri noted it is because of this that relevant officers were directed to be more stringent in vetting farners to ensure maize received is only from genuine farmers. He said that for instance in Nakuru, only two out of those who were queuing on Thursday were willing to be vetted.
The CS said it is suspected that unscrupulous traders are taking advantage of the fact that farmers in neighbouring countries nowadays use the same seed variety as Kenya. This makes it difficult to ascertain the origin of the maize, thus genuine farmers losing out.
"Why should a farmer with five acres of land suffer because of a few individuals who cross over to neighbouring countries to get maize at cheaper prices to come sell at the subsidised price? They even corrupt the system to achieve their agenda," Kiunjuri asked.
He also said there in inflow of surplus from neighbouring countries due to opening up of regional trade maekets.
"We are not fighting foreign traders. We cant run away from competition. Want we are doing is protecting our farmers to ensure they are not affected," Kiunjuri noted.
On the issue of subsidised fertiliser, the CS said the state procured 2, 314,000 bags of 50kg at Sh7 billion. Out of these, 1.2 million bags were meant for planting.
"Already, 900,000 have been distributed to the farmers while the remaining 300,000 are currently being transported to the designated stores and farmers should collect it by end of next week," he said.
The CS noted that unscrupulous individuals and traders have have taken advantage of gaps in vetting process to access government subsidised fertiliser. He said the ministry has put in place painful measures to deal with them.
He said the state has intensified frequent surveillance and monitoring countrywide and directed the board to ensure 'subsidy fertiliser disbursement guidelines are fully complied with.
"Any staff found to be colluding with the unscrupulous traders have been put on notice.Due process will be applied but transferring them to other workstations will not be an option," he warned.
He said the national government in collaboration with county governments have started the process of online registration of farmers before the forthcoming harvest season.Training of staff in six pilot counties has commended.
He said Kenya stands to lose billions of shillings because the subsidised fertiliser is acquired using taxpayers money because the fertiliser will go in the hands of unscrupulous traders at the expense of genuine farmers.
He called on farmers to form cooperatives so that the state can directly deliver fertiliser to them.
"We are still buying maize because we know there are genuine darners who are still holding stocks of maize," he said.
Also present were the Agriculture PS Richard Lesiyampe and National Cerials and Produce Board CEO Kiplang'at Terer.
-The Star