Will maize farmers agree to the new proposed price

Maize-buying centres to start receiving the produce from farmers across the country immediately after the President ordered Agriculture ministry to buy maize at Ksh 2500.

There has been a public outcry in the Rift Valley bread basket after the Cabinet last November approved the purchase of two million bags of maize from local farmers at a price of Ksh2,300 per bag as part of efforts by the government to support local farmers.

Political leaders and farmers from the North Rift have, however, rejected the price, arguing that they were never consulted and that it was punitive. They demanded that the government reviews the price.

“The Ksh2,300 price announced by the government is not what we agreed on as the maize task force. In our first meeting, we told the SFR that the least they can buy maize from farmers is Ksh2,500 considering the production parameters,” Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago said.

But in a statement from State House, Mombasa, President Kenyatta directed the Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Mwangi Kiunjuri to authorise the Strategic Food Reserve to buy two million 90-kilogramme bags of maize at Ksh2,500 a bag.

“It is clear that there is sufficient maize in the market selling at between Ksh1,700 and Ksh1,800 per 90-kilogramme per bag. With these interventions, I do not expect any changes in the current price of unga,” the President’s statement said.

The President said that, after government interventions and the good weather experienced in 2018, the country had registered a bumper harvest to the tune of 46 million bags.

There are about 2.5 million bags carried over from the 2017 crop. The State will simultaneously release 1.7 million 90Kg bags at Ksh1,600 and an additional 300,000 bags of animal feed at Ksh1,400 a bag.

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