The Uasin Gishu governor today urged farmers in Uasin Gishu to stop hoarding maize and release it to National Cereals(NCPB) and Produce Board.
Speaking to a local media house by means of phone, Mr. Mandago promised the farmers that the government through NCPB is working on the maize problem.
Mandago's urge comes against the backdrop of rotting tonnes of maize belonging to the farmers after NCPB refused to offload their maize.
The government through the ministry of industrialisation resorted to importing maize from Uganda at the expense of locally produced maize.
"And farmers who are hoarding the maize, the comfort they have is that the government is going to buy the maize at ksh.3200 as opposed to the maize that is going to be brought in from Uganda at ksh3200.
Farmers are holding a lot of maize in their stores and we really want to urge them next time when the cereals open is good to just release the maize..." said Mandago
The governor assured the county farmers that the government has not stopped buying maize from them.He said that the silos in, for instance, Eldoret and others in the country are full so currently the NCPB is transferring the maize to other silos in areas such as Bungoma and Kisumu so as to create space.
"The government has not stopped buying maize from farmers.We were with the cabinet secretary for agriculture a week ago.The challenge that NCPB is experiencing is that the silos in Eldoret,ziwa...were full.NCPB is now moving away from that maize to silos in Bungoma and other places to create space." confirmed Mandago.
He also said that the NCPB is faced with logistic problems but it has since been instructed on what to do so that farmers do not suffer.