We’ll pay farmers for El Nino losses – PS

The government will compensate farmers who have lost crops and livestock to floods caused by the El Nino rains, Agriculture Principal Secretary Paul Rono has said.

Rono said most of the farmers who will be compensated are in the arid and semi-arid areas.

“In some of the counties, 70 per cent of crops were destroyed. They also lost a significant number of animals. We have a plan to assist these farmers,” said the PS.

He was speaking during a tree planting exercise at KALRO, in Gatanga, Muranga county.

Rono said the ministry is in the process of quantifying the extent of destruction of food crops and livestock so as to come up with a budget for the compensation.

“Farmers in Wajir, Garissa, Mandera, Marsabit and Turkana who lost almost 70 per cent of crops and livestock to floods will be compensated. We are working with the private sector to help in mitigation,” he said.

On the impact of the subsidised fertiliser, the PS said they expect to get between 44 and 61 million bags of maize if post-harvest losses are minimised.

He added that if the fertilizer distribution is streamlined, the country can produce more than 72 million bags of maize by 2027.

Rono said last year 5.3 million bags of fertiliser were distributed to more than 550,000 farmers and the figure is expected to double in coming years.

“The impact of the fertilizer has been immense, because it has increased our production from 25 million bags of maize last year to almost 44 million bags this year. We want to streamline distribution and gradually we will get to 61 million bags in three years,” he said.