The Senate is calling on county governments and the National Government to clear up to Ksh 10 billon in unpaid bills which are hurting operations of the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).
According to the Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture, Livestock, and the Blue Economy, the national government to clear its stock of pending bills to NCPB despite giving directives for last mile distribution of subsidized fertilizer.
“The National government and county governments have not equally paid their dues to NCPB up to Ksh 10 billion and therefore crippling the capacity of NCPB to roll out proper services to Kenyans. So in due course, the committee will be discussing the specific counties and why they are not paying, and also the national government, why it is not paying NCPB to enable it to do what it ought to do,” said committee chairman Senator Wakoli Wafula.
During a tour to Uasing Gishu County, the committee also raised concerns over NCPB’s limited human resource capacity in the North Rift region, given that there are only 24 staff at Eldoret regional office and about 130 in the entire region.
Wafula cited several reasons for staff shortage such as resignation and emphasized the need to recruit additional workforce to bolster service delivery.
“So we will be calling upon the national government to ensure that they facilitate the quick recruitment of people in this particular sector,” added Wafula.
During the tour, the Senate also explored ways the board can tap into the devolved units to ensure that farmers have timely access to fertilizer and quality seeds.
Wakoli said the meeting sort to assess the board’s level of preparedness as a strategic grain reserve center and see how they are prepared to deal with food security in the country.
“We have discussed on how NCPB can have mutual agreement and working relations with the county government of Uasin Gishu and the neighboring county governments to ensure that the last mile fertilizer issuance is equally and properly implemented,” noted Senator Wakoli.
The senators also assessed NCPBs ability to manage the post-harvest processes in order to assist farmers in the North Rift region can benefit from the resources and expertise provided by the board.
Wakoli raised concern on the underutilization of the equipment procured especially the dryers to help farmers dry their cereals and manage post-harvest losses due to aflatoxins.
“And through this consultative session, that government procured dryers to counties in this region. The dryers in the custody of NCPB are working but 98pc of the dryers that are at county level, are not working,” he said.
He affirmed the committee’s bold step to move with speed to demand an explanation and swift action from the national government that procured the dryers to ensure that they no longer become idle investments, but they must be turned into proper equipment to serve the farmer.
