NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 8 – Kenya is expecting two-shipment of bulk fertilizers as the government seek to cool down high prices of the commodity.
The consignments are expected at the Port of Mombasa in the next 14-days.
Patagonia will arrive today with Federal Baltic arriving on Feb 12, 2023.
Fertilizer’s arrival in the country is a boost to farmers who have been calling on the Government to reduce the high cost of manures.
This comes at a time when President William Ruto’s Government is rolling out a fertilizer subsidy programme to cushion farmers.
Earlier, the State plans to launch an electronic voucher fertiliser subsidy programme aimed at addressing the challenges of input thefts that marred the previous processes.
President Ruto said the government will continue to subsidise the price of fertilizer and farmers will buy at Sh3,500 per bag.
He added that the government is working with the private sector to import 300,000 metric tonnes (6 million bags) of fertilizer.
“Let me also say that we intend to deliver our subsidy program on fertilizer on e – voucher that is going to be available to 1.3 million farmers,” Ruto said earlier.
The e-voucher scheme was launched by the government in 2020 as a pilot initiative, although it was only intended for small-scale farmers in a few counties who got funds via their mobile phones to buy farm inputs from authorized agro veterinarians.
Last year, a Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Sector Survey showed that only 20 percent of sampled farms accessed the subsidized fertilizer.
