Allow farmers to get fair return on their sweat

Trade minister Moses Kuria’s 72-hour ultimatum to maize farmers to dispose of their crop before a Cabinet meeting tomorrow has set the stage for a potentially messy confrontation.

Obviously, it would be grossly unfair to force farmers to sell their crop to millers at a throwaway price yet they incurred a high cost to produce it.

This is an intriguing twist in the relations between the three-month-old Ruto administration and the hardworking people behind a sector that is the backbone of the economy. The farmers grow the food to feed the country but farming is also a source of livelihood for them. Unless they sell the produce and earn money, they would not cater for their basic needs.

Not long ago, the farmers were full of praise for the government when President William Ruto authorised the distribution of heavily subsidised fertilisers to farmers countrywide. With this intervention to boost agricultural production, the price of a 50kg bag was slashed from Sh6,500 to Sh3,000.

However, the crop grown with that affordable fertiliser is yet to mature, and now a clash looms with Cabinet Secretary Kuria accusing farmers of hoarding their maize. He has let them know that the forthcoming Cabinet meeting will decide whether to buy maize from them or import it.

While the government has a responsibility to ensure that nobody dies of hunger, it is no justification for the CS’s shabby treatment of hardworking farmers. These are difficult times, as more than six million Kenyans are facing starvation—by the government’s estimate last week—but the source of livelihood for farmers must also be protected. Authorising imports could spell doom for them.

Mr Kuria has been in the eye of the storm lately for authorising duty-free imports of 10 million bags of GM maize in response to the national food crisis. The priority should, therefore, be to boost the national strategic food reserve through the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).

NCPB should quickly mop up the produce from farmers at reasonable prices, so that the government absorbs the shocks arising from the high cost of farm inputs for them, and not flood the market with imports and disadvantage them.

Mr Kuria should stop his strong-arm tactics and blatant threats and enable farmers to get a fair return on their investment. That will give them a reason to continue farming.