A row has erupted between the Agriculture ministry and the Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR) Board following plans to import 12.5 million bags of maize to ease an imminent acute shortage of the staple.
While the government has opened a three-month window for duty-free import of maize to meet the shortage and help lower flour prices, the SGR board has dismissed the move, calling it untimely and likely to saturate the local market with cheap produce to the farmers’ disadvantage.
“Importation of maize should not coincide with the harvest of the current crop, which will be ready in the next two months. This will destabilise market prices and subject farmers to losses,” board chairman Noah Wekesa said.
He wants the government to import only two million bags of maize that he says is sufficient before the next harvest.
“What is the logic in importing such quantity when harvest of the local grain is ongoing in some parts of South Rift region, [and] while Tanzania is ready to sell 1.2 million bags to us?” Dr Wekesa posed. The process is likely to take long due to logistical challenges, he added.
The country, Dr Wekesa said, is expected to realise a bumper harvest this season due to favourable conditions.
However, the Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Andrew Tuimur, says the planned duty-free import of maize is meant to ease an acute shortage of the grain, which has resulted in high cost of flour, which most households cannot afford.
It will be composed of 10 million bags of maize for human consumption and 2.5 million bags for manufacturing animal feed.
Most farmers in the North Rift — the country’s food basket — are against the plans. They claim that cartels in the cereals sector are out to flood the local market with cheap produce.
“We fail to understand why the government is always in a rush to import duty-free maize when the local produce is almost ready. Proper logistical measures should be in place to protect the sector by motivating farmers to increase production instead of the country turning into perennial importation,” Mr David Kemei, a farmer in Soy Location, Uasin Gishu county, said.
Dr Wekesa yesterday said that his board will meet this week to decide on destroying poisonous maize.
Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula has, however, petitioned the government to make public the procurement process of 12.5 million bags of maize.
Addressing the press in his Bungoma Town office Tuesday, Mr Wetang’ula alleged that the government was plotting to export the produce from Mexico.
“I want to urge President Uhuru Kenyatta that before his government actualises the said importation of the duty-free maize, a thorough analysis should be done on how much grain we have in the country,” Senator Wetang’ula said.
It was needless to import maize because the crop is doing well in the maize growing areas of Bungoma, Kakamega, Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, Nakuru, West Pokot ahead of the harvesting season, he said.
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