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Farmers in Kiambu and Murang’a counties are up in arms over bureacratic release of government-subsidised fertiliser which has delayed planting in the region at a time that long rains continue to pour.

Long queues of farmers from Gatundu North, South, Kandara, Maragua and Thika constituencies have been the order of the day at National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), Thika depot as each farmer try their luck in receiving the subsidised farm input at Sh3,500 per bag.

They are part of the over five million registered farmers who the government ordered to access the subsidized product from various NCPB stores across the country. The government has been offering subsidised fertiliser in a bid to enhance production with an ultimate intention of reducing the cost of basic food items that are at their all-time high.

The irate farmers also faulted the lengthy procedures NCPB has put in place in the distribution of the fertilisers, saying the requirements are unnecessarily stringent and could lock out most of them.

“It’s been hectic to have one bag of fertiliser processed here at NCPB Thika. We are very worried because the rains are about to end yet we have not received the inputs that are necessary in our planting,” Michael Kiringu, a farmer from Gatanga, regretted. They regretted that to process a single bag is taking hours, a situation that has forced many of them to appear at the store for days without successfully getting the product.

“You can line for days to be attended to here at NCPB Thika. We wonder why the process is so stringent yet the government told us it will be easy for us to access the products to facilitate food production. It’s time the government relooks this issue,” Miringu Mugo, a farmer from Gatundu noted.