Govt not to blame for soaring fertilizer prices says Munya

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya has distanced the government from the soaring fertilizer prices.

According to Munya, the challenge has been occasioned by the war between Russian and Ukraine which lead exporters of the product.

It’s on this premise that the CS castigated MPs for politicizing the issue instead of appropriating funds for fertilizer subsidies in Parliament in a bid to lower the cost of the commodity.

“Politicians have perfected the art of politicizing everything in public instead of offering solutions,” the CS hit out, saying that there was a lot of good that the government had done to improve the agricultural sector.

He was speaking in Embu East Sub-county while donating assorted food crop seeds to farmers.

He also said tea earnings had improved following reforms that have been undertaken in the sector including the streamlining of Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA).

“Small scale tea farmers are being paid Sh. 21 every month per kilo of green leaf,” the CS said while calling on KTDA to fastrack processing and payment of the annual bonus before the close of the financial year in July.

The CS said coffee farmers were yet to reap maximum benefits of reforms in the sector following failure by the National Assembly to enact the Coffee Bill 2021 that was aimed at streamlining the whole crop value chain from production to marketing.

“Despite the President approving transmittal of the Bill to Parliament early last year, the new law is just gathering dust in the National Assembly as MPs go round the country playing cheap politics with farmers’ woes,” Munya complained.

He said Kenya was an agricultural country and anyone willing to change it positively must start by improving the sector.