Sh1b sugar fertiliser deal sparks suspicions

Concerns have been raised over the merit of Sh1 billion-fertiliser import tender advertised by the Kenya Sugar Board (KSB).

Its timing, coming when cane is over matured in various outgrower zones, elicits questions over the intention of the deal and whether it is a priority for the troubled industry.

Coming against a backdrop of bitter differences in the board over the importation, KSB is also on the spot over its logistical preparedness to effectively store and distribute fertiliser to farmers

Similarly, farmers are questioning the legal mandate of KSB to purchase and distribute fertiliser if it is not contrary to the Sugar Development Fund protocol.

Already, a farmer, Mr Tom Onyango, has written to the KSB and Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission alleging a sinister move to defraud farmers through the deal.

Onyango’s petition asks KSB not to entrust outgrower companies with the fertiliser due to weak management, which owes Sh9.7 billion to the regulator and why Sh600 million owed for cane delivered to millers is not being prioritised for payment.

"We do not need fertiliser when we have cane whose age is between 24 to 54 months. What will farmers be using the fertiliser for?" asked Onyango.

Farmers’ arrears

Says Onyango: "Sugar industry directly supports 200,000 small scale farmers who supply over 80 per cent of the cane milled by factories. If fertiliser is to be imported we must be told in advance what it will cost per a 50kg bag?

"We are apprehensive the feritiliser may be imported and on arrival it costs more than the market prices and be forced on the farmers. We need consensus way ahead of the deal," Onyango said in a petition to KSB.

Onyango demanded to know at what interest rates KSB was going charge farmers for the fertiliser imported.

"Fertiliser import is not a priority, and we ask the Minister for Agriculture to halt the deal immediately and press for payment of farmer arrears?" Onyango said.

A report by KSB on cost of cane and sugar production in Kenya says fertiliser supply and distribution to the farmer is constrained by delayed procurement, inadequate transport, field storage and poor supervision of application.

"The effect of fertiliser application on yields is clearly sub-optimal," the report says.

But more trouble affects fertiliser supply when farmers sell them to meet immediate food and credit needs at the expense of their farms.

source: eastandard.net