Kenya farmers to stop maize sale to govt
Dec 08, 2008
KENYAN farmers have threatened to stop selling their maize to the National Cereal and Produce Board (NCPB) because the price is too low compared to the high cost of inputs.
By Reuben Olita
in Nairobi
KENYAN farmers have threatened to stop selling their maize to the National Cereal and Produce Board (NCPB) because the price is too low compared to the high cost of inputs.
The farmers from the major growing areas of the North Rift Valley also threatened to demonstrate in Eldoret town yesterday if the government continues frustrating their efforts to sell their produce at reasonable rates.
The farmers want the government to raise the maize price to Ksh2,360 for a 90 kilogramme bag and lower the price of inputs by scrapping the taxes or else they will abandon the NCPB and sell their produce to middlemen.
The threat comes at a time when the government had intervened in the current food crisis by reducing the price for the maize flour.
Meanwhile, the deputy prime minister, Musalia Mudavadi, continued with his defiance of prime minister, Raila Odinga’s, set price of maize of Ksh52 per 2kg bag for the poor and Ksh72 per 2kg bag for the rich.
The prices were announced by Odinga and agriculture minister, William Ruto and were supposed to take effect this week.
The set prices raised concerns about how the government would ensure adequate supply of the subsidised brands while preventing artificial shortages of the cheap maize flour.
The decision was reached after daylong intense negotiations with cereal millers. Mudavadi, who is also the local government minister, said the new maize flour price would not be effected soon since the country was still facing an acute shortage of the crop.
“We must tell Kenyans the truth. We do not have adequate maize and hence the new prices cannot take effect immediately,†he said at the weekend.
in Nairobi
KENYAN farmers have threatened to stop selling their maize to the National Cereal and Produce Board (NCPB) because the price is too low compared to the high cost of inputs.
The farmers from the major growing areas of the North Rift Valley also threatened to demonstrate in Eldoret town yesterday if the government continues frustrating their efforts to sell their produce at reasonable rates.
The farmers want the government to raise the maize price to Ksh2,360 for a 90 kilogramme bag and lower the price of inputs by scrapping the taxes or else they will abandon the NCPB and sell their produce to middlemen.
The threat comes at a time when the government had intervened in the current food crisis by reducing the price for the maize flour.
Meanwhile, the deputy prime minister, Musalia Mudavadi, continued with his defiance of prime minister, Raila Odinga’s, set price of maize of Ksh52 per 2kg bag for the poor and Ksh72 per 2kg bag for the rich.
The prices were announced by Odinga and agriculture minister, William Ruto and were supposed to take effect this week.
The set prices raised concerns about how the government would ensure adequate supply of the subsidised brands while preventing artificial shortages of the cheap maize flour.
The decision was reached after daylong intense negotiations with cereal millers. Mudavadi, who is also the local government minister, said the new maize flour price would not be effected soon since the country was still facing an acute shortage of the crop.
“We must tell Kenyans the truth. We do not have adequate maize and hence the new prices cannot take effect immediately,†he said at the weekend.