The Strategic Food Reserve chairman Noah Wekesa has faulted agriculture ministry proposals to have the body merged with the National Cereals and Produce Board.
According to Wekesa, the fund is crucial in financing and monitoring NCPB books and the move to disband the fund will give maize cartels a free hand to fleece the board.
Mid-January, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya revealed plans to merge the Strategic Food Reserve and the National Cereals and Produce Board which he said were at an advanced stage.
According to Munya this is one of the austerities measures the government is undertaking to cut down on expenditure.
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However the fund’s chair Noah Wekesa says the move could be counterproductive to small scale farmers due to lack of an over sight body to check NCPB expenditure in a bid to protect smallholder farmers.
Additionally, Wekesa says NCPB has paid it most of the 10 billion shillings it owed them, with part of the money to be directed towards the purchase of 2 million bags of maize before June this year.
Elsewhere Kiambu farmers are set to benefit from high yielding seeds and extension services in a partnership between the county government and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
The organization president Agnes Kalibata says the seed recycling has cut Kenya’s food production by more than half with suppressed farmers’ earnings
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