CS Kagwe: No subsidised fertiliser for farmers before soil testing

Farmers will get subsidised fertiliser after the soil on their farms has been tested.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the government will deploy new technology to assess the chemical and physical properties of soil to identify nutrient deficiencies or imbalances.

Kagwe announced that farmers registration was going on to enable the government to account for resources distributed to them.

 “There is technology in soil analysis that we want to adopt. We are registering farmers to ensure transparency in the distribution of farm inputs," he said.

The CS spoke during a meeting with state parastatals chairpersons, CEOs and the directors of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development on Thursday at Ocean Beach Resort in Malindi.

He explained that soil testing is conducted to protect it from harmful material.

“This is the rainy season, and we want to make sure that farmers get subsidised fertilisers, but we cannot get it to them unless we know who it is going to and the public also knows who is receiving it and also accountability in feedback using technology and in soil analysis," he said.

The CS said that once the soil is analysed, the government can advise farmers what crops they should plant and what the type of fertiliser suitable for the land.

“We have a situation where we are giving them subsidised fertilisers, but they could be damaging the soils even more by adding acidity to the soil because we have not done the soil analysis, and so this thing has to be very basic technology that answers the question that the farmer is asking,” he said.

The CS regretted that the Kenyan farmer has for a long time been treated casually and given scanty information on their agricultural ventures, but the time was ripe for change.

He said that the 30 state parastatals in the Agriculture docket will work together to ensure seamless flow of information, technology and material to farmers to boost production and enhance food security in the country.

“The people present here today are all our parastatals, and we have about 30 parastatals, and we have the chairmen of parastatals, the directors of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and the CEOs of parastatals, and we are here to discuss the way forward on better coordination of the ministry, how to create synergy, our theme being to create a circumstance where one plus one is equal to three,” he said. 

The CS revealed that the ministry will navigate the issues of merging state agencies as gazetted by the Kenya Kwanza administration in 2024.

“This meeting is not just about mergers and the challenges that we have but is focused on solutions for our challenges, and I thank you, the members of the press, for your continued support of the ministry,” he said.

Kagwe said that his ministry was working with the Education docket to align the country towards a food-secure nation.

“We want to engage the Ministry of Education so that together we can align ourselves to the future of Kenya in terms of food security and food production, and the interest in agriculture by the youth is actually predicated on the use of the technologies that we are using,” he said.