Written by Joseph Amunya Otieno 2012-04-03 10:19:00 Read 425 Times

Fertilizer at the kipkaren Depot

Long queues have began to be witnessed outside National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) depots in Lugari district as maize farmers scramble for government subsidized fertilizer in readiness for this year’s planting season.

Speaking to West Fm in his office, Lugari District Agricultural Officer, Mr. William Ndeka, said that the first batch of 12,260 bags of D.A.P fertilizer was offloaded in Lugari district last Thursday.

Urging farmers to turn out in large numbers and purchase the fertilizer at affordable rates, Mr. Ndeka disclosed that the fertilizer has been stored in all NCPB depots within the district, including 2,060, 3,600 and 6,000 bags at Lugari, Kipkarren and Turbo depots respectively.

The agricultural officer disclosed that the district is expected to receive a total of 31,000 bags of D.A.P from the government this year, with Kipkarren and Lugari depots each receiving 8,000 bags, while Turbo will receive 15,000 bags.

A single bag of the subsidized D.A.P fertilizer is selling at Ksh 2,500.
Mr. Ndeka has called upon maize farmers to visit divisional agricultural offices nearer to them or the district agricultural offices at Lumakanda in order to be issued with clearance notes to enable them secure the fertilizer from the depots.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ndeka has dispelled fears that business cartels were planning to buy the commodity in large quantities from the depots, repackage, hoard and later on sell it to farmers at exorbitant prices.

He has assured farmers that his department was closely working with NCPB managers in the area and that a raft of measures has been put in place to make sure that the fertilizer which is meant to benefit low income farmers from the district was not abused by cartels.

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