As recently promised by H.E President William Ruto, Hon. Mithika, CS for Agriculture flagged off the first consignment of grain dryers that will be distributed in the larger Rift Valley region earlier today.

The 100 grain dryers that will be distributed across the country have a capacity to dry 14 tons of maize in two hours.

This will drastically help the Kenyan farmers to reduce post-harvest losses leading to increased farmers earnings and a more stable grain reserve for the country.

A week ago when the government received the 100 dryers, CS Mithika stated that the government and the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) had agreed to bring down the cost of drying a 90-kg bag of maize to Sh70.

 Farmers have previously been paying over Sh300 to dry a 90-kg bag of maize.

The CS also revealed that the government and the cereals body were implementing the Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) where if a farmer does not have anywhere to store their maize, they can do it at the warehouses and get a receipt. The farmer would then be able to redeem the same quantity of maize at any warehouse across the country. If the farmers are speculators, they can wait for a better price in the future.

He also urged maize farmers to continue registering in the ongoing farmer registration exercise to benefit from Government subsidy programs like the subsidized fertilizer to enhance food and nutrition security in our country.

With the contribution of fertilizer to the total cost of production being around 30 per cent, the government expects the cost of maize production to come down, which will lead to cheaper maize and Unga prices.

“I am happy that with the support that the government is giving to our farmers, we have seen that they are going back to their farms,” said Hon. Linturi recently.