Kenya Farmers Association (KFA) Uasin Gishu branch director Kipkorir Menjo at a past press briefing. [Photo: Joe Khisa]
Cereal farmers in Uasin Gishu have urged the county government to put in place measures that ensure they engage with them exclusively through cooperatives.
This is in what the farmers say will help address the challenge of middlemen who always take advantage of them.
Speaking in Eldoret on Tuesday during a meeting with farmers representatives from across the county, Kenya Farmers Association (KFA) Uasin Gishu branch director Kipkorir Menjo said there was a need for the county government to ensure there is a strong farmers cooperatives movement.
"We are asking that the county start engaging with us only through cooperatives as this will make things easier and do away with cartels as well as middlemen who take advantage of existing loopholes in the sector," said Menjo.
"This engagement should especially be used in the supply of the subsidized fertilizer as using cooperatives will ensure genuine farmers benefit and lockout unscrupulous businesspersons who usually buy at a lower price on the pretense that they are farmers only to later resell at a higher price," he added.
Since the introduction of subsidized fertilizer to farmers, there has always been claims of National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) officials diverting the fertilizer to businesspersons who would later resell at a higher price.