NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 17 – The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) expects bulk shipment of fertilizers to arrive at the Port of Mombasa in the next few days.
The three-consignment are expected to land in the country in the next 14-days as of yesterday.
While HPC Sunrise is set to arrive on Jan 22 2023, Nord Dubai and Bulk Traders will be arriving on Jan 25 2023.
The arrival of the fertilizer is a boost to farmers who have been calling on the Government to reduce the high cost of fertilizers.
It 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.
“And I want to encourage our farming community to register themselves because going forward our fertilizer subsidy program is going to be dispensed on the internet on e – voucher so that we can eliminate brokers and eliminate cartels and ensure that targeted farmers have access to fertilizer,” he added.
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.
