Agriculture CS Willy Bett. [Photo: Facebook/Willy Bett]
The government has directed the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) to stop with immediate effect, the sale of subsidized fertilizer to farmers in the North Rift region.
This is to pave way for investigations following fears that some NCPB officials might be colluding with unscrupulous businesspersons, who are buying the subsidized fertilizer with the intention of reselling to farmers at a higher price.
Addressing the press after visiting NCPB Eldoret depot on Thursday, Bett expressed concerns over the high amount of subsidized fertilizer being sold at the board's depot in the region.He said sell of the fertilizer will resume after about fortnight.
"There's a high turnover of fertilizer purchase and what we're suspecting is that not the right farmers are buying the fertilizer at this point and time," Bett said.
"For this reason, we are going to temporality stop selling the subsidized fertilisers, maybe for a week or two, so that we finalize investigations because we are suspecting there's a major collision happening somewhere," he added.