Drivers pose for a photo beside a long queue of lorries delivering cereals at the NCPB depot in Eldoret. [Photo: nation.co.ke]
Maize and Wheat farmers in Uasin Gishu have petitioned the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) to move with speed and bar middlemen from delivering maize to the depots.
They also asked NCPB to hasten the process of receiving their produce to cushion them from expenses incurred while in the queue.
Led by the County's Kenya Farmers Association (KFA) director Kipkorir Menjo, the farmers alleged that some unknown individuals were delivering maize in bulk to the NCPB Eldoret depot at their own expense.
“We want NCPB to ensure that maize being delivered to the Eldoret depot belong to farmers from Uasin Gishu and no other people so that we can ease the queue being experienced,” Menjo said in Eldoret on Thursday.
"We have noticed that some of these vehicles belong to farmers that we don’t know and it is quite unfortunate that they are being given the first priority to deliver the produce as wen local farmers remain on queues for weeks before we deliver our maize," added Musa Barno, a farmer from Moiben.
This comes as long queues of trucks and tractors loaded with sacks of grains snaking towards the depot characterized the delivery of the produce.
The Ministry of Agriculture last year announced that farmers must register with the respective counties before delivering produce as one of the stringent measures introduced to block brokers from selling the cereals to NCPB.
The board is buying a 90kg bag of maize at Sh3,200 up from last year's Sh3,000.