Uasin Gishu County CEC in charge of Agriculture and Livestock Mr Cyril Cheruiyot has urged the national to increase funds allocated to NCPB to buy maize from farmers.
Speaking in his office on Wednesday, Cheruiyot said the recent allocation of money meant to buy maize from farmers is a drop in the ocean since farmers have a lot of maize at their disposal during this harvesting period.
“In order for National Cereals and Produced Board (NCPB) to buy maize from farmers effectively it needs Sh8 billion and not the current Sh2.7 billion which is very little compared to the farmers’ produce,” he said.
He said that farmers from the North Rift produce over four million bags of maize annually adding with the allocation of Sh2.7 billion only one million bags will be bought leaving over three million to middle men.
“I urge the national government through the Ministry of Agriculture to allocate more funds to the NCPB for it to buy maize from farmers to prevent farmers from being exploited by middlemen” he said
He also urged farmers during this rainy season to take their maize to NCPB for drying where the cost has been cut by half.