The Council of Governors (CoG) on Thursday held a meeting in Eldoret town so as to address the maize crisis in the North Rift region.
Council's chairman Josphat Nanok chaired the meeting that was also attended by governors Jackson Mandago (Uasin Gishu), Patrick Khaemba (Trans Nzoia) and Elgeyo Marakwet's Alex Tolgos.
In a joint statement to the press after the meeting, Nanok, the Turkana county boss said they had resolved that the Ministry of Agriculture clears the remaining balances owed to farmers to allow them to solve their domestic needs as well as plan for the next season.
The governors also called on the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) to open its doors so as to save farmers from the agony of post-harvest losses and unscrupulous businessmen.
"The National Government should also partner with County Governments to make stores built by the latter for use as buying centres as the current NCPB strategy favours large-scale growers and leaving out smallholder farmers," said Nanok while reading the joint statement.
"NCPB and the Ministry of Agriculture need to come up with a strategy to ensure that maize in the stores is sold to create space for new yield," he added.
Other resolutions reached in the meeting is that the National government should give counties funds for maize purchase and fertilizer subsidy as a conditional grant since crop husbandry is a devolved function.
They also demanded a mandatory and immediate rollout of the national farmer registration exercise to identify genuine farmers.
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