Cotton farmers will receive 500 metric tonnes of seeds this year under a renewed effort by the government to boost production and include the crop in Kenya’s export list.
- Farmers will also benefit from a price increase of KSh20 per kilogramme up from KSh52 to KSh72.
- Currently, 24 counties mostly in arid and semi-arid areas grow the crop,
- Key challenges the farmers face include delayed seed delivery, unfavourable weather, illegal cross-border trading, pest infestation, and the poor adaptability of BT cotton to local environment.
“Continuously, we want to eliminate the importation of cotton in the country so that we can make fabrics here, and the exports from Kenya must have cotton that is grown by our farmers, even from our special economic zones,” said President William Ruto.
The Agriculture Authority in its 2021 Annual Cotton Report noted that delayed seed delivery was a major challenge especially due to the fact that the Biotechnology seed has to be imported into the Country from India, undergo germination test by KEPHIS and then the procurement process before distribution. In most cases, the seed reached the farmers when the dry spell had set in.
The BT seed was not also adequate for all the farmers who had prepared their land in anticipation due to lack of adequate funding. This forced most of these farmers to half-heartedly revert to the earlier abandoned conventional seed.
“Additionally, because we are now moving into the planting season, there will be resources also to support the fertilizer subsidy programme.” Ruto spoke during the signing of County Governments Additional Allocations Bill into law. The new law has also allocated KSh5 billion for the subsidised fertiliser programme.
From the new law, counties will get an additional KSh46 billion in the 2023/2024 financial year. Of the KSh46 billion made available by the presidential assent, Sh450 million will go towards the completion of five county headquarters.
The county governments of Lamu, Isiolo, Nyandarua, Tharaka Nithi and Tana River could not raise enough revenues to complete the projects.
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