Online portal to guide farmers on input use

The Ministry of Agriculture has launched an online portal to guide farmers on the best crop and region-specific inputs to buy in a drive to improve food productivity.

The Vifaa Kenya dashboard, activated last Tuesday, publishes information on fertiliser retail prices, recommended fertiliser usage per hectare as well as real-time information on when to apply specific products on targeted plantations to ensure higher yields.

“Timely and accurate data are critical to support closing the gap between farmer demand and fertiliser supply during the planting season. Vifaa visualises key information on fertiliser price, use, product availability and policy at the national and county level,” said the ministry.

Tea, horticulture, flower and maize farmers are major fertiliser users which leads to multibillion-shilling imports of the product annually.

Vifaa draws data from government sources, private sector players as well as from Africafertiliser.org that is tasked with updating the data on a regular basis.

Other players have also mooted direct farmer communication channels to boost fertiliser intake based on rainfall availability, soil types and crops grown.