Packets of subsidised unga at a supermarket. The State subsidy on maize flour will end on October 31st. [pulselive.co.ke]The government subsidy on maize flour comes to an end on October 31 according to Agriculture cabinet secretary Willy Bett.Bett says the termination of flour subsidy will be in order as this is when new crop harvests will enter the market.This is, however, a slight extension from an initial mid-October date announced by Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich last week when he appeared before a special Parliamentary committee scrutinizing the supplementary budget, reports the Nation."We just don’t want to end it without a proper exit plan. We must be certain that there would be no spike in the cost of flour, that is why we want it to come to an end on October 31," Bett said in reference to the subsidy as quoted by the Nation.Bett has said that an assessment by the Agriculture ministry shows that new maize stocks from the main producing areas of the North Rift region are expected to enter the market at the end of October.The close of the subsidy, the paper adds, could provide relief for growers who had opposed its extension beyond the current harvest window, saying such a move would have destabilised the market.Under the subsidy, a two-kilogramme packet retails at Sh90 with the one-kilogramme one selling for Sh47.But despite the end of the subsidy, the government may be forced to consider similar interventions next year amid projections of steep maize imports from April to cover for a shortfall of about five million bags from the long rains season, adds the Nation.Egerton University’s Tegemeo Institute last week said a projected harvest of 32 million bags of maize from the long rains season would only service the country’s consumption demands until April.The country requires an average 36-40 million bags of maize annually to satisfy demand, estimates by the Agriculture ministry showed.

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