Agriculture CS Willy Bett has said the government will purchase all the maize which will be offered by farmers from the 2017 harvest. CS Bett said the government has already conducted a field technical survey to determine the prevailing cost of maize production in major regions of Western Kenya and Rift Valley and after a critical analysis and harmonization, the cost of production of a 90kg bag of maize was 2,257.
He further revealed that the price of a 90kg bag of maize to the National Cereals Produce Board (NCPB) will be Kshs 3,200 from Monday 16th October. However, he reiterated that the budget won’t prove to be a barrier, even though the budgetary allocation to the sector for the financial year 2017/2018 is Kshs 1.3 billion, “It’s the oversight board that does the purchases and it has its own internal funds, on top of the budgetary allocation,” said Bett “Before the budgetary provisions of the 2017/2018 financial year which was Kshs 1.3 billion, they already had Kshs 6.5 billion in reserve so if you combine the two it’s in excess of Kshs 6.5 billion.”