NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 10 – A section of Members of Parliament from agriculture regions now want assurance that the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) will provide for a minimum guarantee return fund for farmers.
They want a clause in the final report to include the fund that constitutes 5 percent of nationally generated revenue singly dedicated to agriculture business stabilization.
Addressing journalists Tuesday, Tharaka MP George Gitonga Murugara noted that the fund will ensure that each crop is independently guaranteed of their share dependent on their market share.
“The fund should be used to cater for a national fertilizer subsidy program for our farmers to fund agricultural research and extension services, we need to motivate our farmers by assuring them of an annual guarantee minimum return on all their produce,” he said.
He says that the funb will be used to stabilize each of listed crops and farm produce whenever the market price return lower than expected price of commodity.
The crops that will be covered include tea, coffee, milk, green grams, macadamia, miraa, sugarcane, cotton ,rice, fruits, pyrethrum, potatoes maize, beans and coconut,
The MPs Urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to publicize implementation framework of BBI process and faulted politicization of the process which, they say, locks out many Kenyans and stakeholders whose voices are not heard.
“A Constitutional amendment is a sacred national duty that should be divorced from the whims of party and partisan politics, all stakeholders response to the BBI report must be listened and sufficiently addressed, we condemn greedy voices who are keen on locking other Kenyans from this process,” Murugara said.
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