- Despite hardwork, farmers are neglected
Farmers have little to cerebrate in this year’s budget. At a time the country is blessed with abundant rains and a bumper harvest, one would have expected the government to allocate additional funds to buy the surplus cereals. In previous years, the National Cereals and Produce Board has set the benchmark in pricing against which millers and even middlemen are forced buy.
This has led to stabilization of prices to the benefit of farmers. If we go by past experience, farmers now will be left at the mercy of middlemen to sell their maize, of course at throwaway prices. To make matters worse, the government reduced import duty on wheat and rice; this will only benefit millers at the expense of local wheat farmers.
Farmers are a neglected lot
We have just emerged from a devastating drought and food shortage. Luckily, the situation has abruptly changed. A wise government would have taken advantage of these to buy the excess produce, to build its buffer stock and stabilize prices. All of us know very well that all the maize in the strategic reserve was sold by government officials to Sudan and the rest to local millers. The country now does not have adequate maize stocks at NCPB.
By the way, Kenya is a signatory to the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, which stipulates that African countries allocate at least 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture. The new budget allocates less than 1 percent.
Hello Readers
My question is the cost of production for dry maize from an acre. This should be for a rain fed crop.
Assumption of normal rain, in the maize growing regions of kenya (western kenya)