Smart 'Farmers'

Unfortunately, the ‘farmers’ who sold the NCBP hundreds of thousands of bags of maize worth billions, won’t be found culpable. Here’s why:

  1. No limit set for an individual farmer.

  2. It isn’t illegal to buy from other farmers and consolidate to sell to the NCBP. Waiting in line at the depots means paying for the lorries/tractors hire daily and therefore those with such machinery had the advantage and could therefore buy from farmers in the line at lower prices. Business sense to.

However, those that imported and sold to the cereals deserve the hangman’s noose. Managers and heads of NCPB too.

Kuna ladies sijui Nani aliwapea heads up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FdGfZQbcuI

NCPB should just be disbanded. It’s no longer useful. Every other year it’s a maize scandal involving NCPB. Counties to form their own grain reserves. and I heard Gov Mandago defending the tenderpreneurs who sold maize to NCPB at the expense of other genuine farmers?

How will the country survive without a strategic grain reserve? If you leave millers to control grain industry then prepare to pay over Kshs 200 for 2 Kgs maize at the shops. Last year Q1 government released 200000 bags to bring the price down from 150 to 100. The slightly over a dozen maize miller talked amongst themselves and halted maize delivery to retailers. Prices remained the same. GoK had to rope then into the Kshs 90 subsidied maize program for it to work.

Solution here is simple, anyone above 1000 bags of maize to apply for vetting before they can deliver maize to depot. Let them come with title deeds and County commissioner letter to verify they have farms that can grow to that amount.

We should just hang all persons implicated in corruption like china. Hio time ndio hii upuss itaisha

yes they play an important role in controlling the prices, but we are just like maize zombies, I mean how many other countries rely on maize as we do, just disband the thing wacha market forces come into play, otherwise it has just become a tool for some to loot cash.

Mistakes have been made, no denying that. The first is that NCPB buys maize at the highest price in Africa. Kshs 3200, this was to benefit farmers and it has with the exception of this year. You can actually import Brazilian white maize, pay duty and still make a profit legally by selling it to NCPB. Two, there was no quotas on the amount of maize you sell to NCPB. It was first come, first serve. Line up your trucks, deliver, its tested to confirm moisture content, no pests and weighed. You get your receipt and leave. You can use the receipt at the bank to get 80% of the amount in the banks there or await 2 weeks for NCPB to pay. Most wait. Usually 6 billion covers for maize purchases annually. However 5 billion that was first released got finished before the lorries lines ended. Those who missed out complained. 2 billion was realised to NCPB to sort that. The line is still there. That’s when this scandal broke. Now more money will be realised but with quotas imposed. NCPB has to release grain to the market to get more room for the maize.

what is strategic in letting grain rot in storage only to waste money on maize subsidy for imported maize ?

also there is no pre-requisite that one has to grow this maize to delivery to NCPB. What if I buy “cheaply” from genuine farmers then re-sell to NCPB ?
hehe hapo kwa >1,000bags inahitaji tighter controls.

Subjecting maize to free market is good. Let demand/supply dictate price. Hii mambo ya kupanda mahindi kisha unabahatisha kupanga line kwa ghala haifai. Let farmers move to contractual farming i.e you are guaranteed a price/market for your crop.

Also ugali is overrated! I’ve not seen anyone die from not eating that tasteless lump

Hiyo ndio shida yetu Kenyans. Once a few bags of Maize starts going bad they needed to get rid of them and sell that whole stock. Instead barua inatumwa Ministry to decide. Meanwhile zinaharibika daily. A few months later its too late. The whole stock is useless.
Then turnover at NCPB is very high, hiring and firing every year. Mtu anaingia anakula na kuenda in one year. Its good watu wafungwe so that the lesson can sink in.

NCPB has failed in its work. The strategic grain reserve is just meant to enrich a few people. Where were they when Kenyans were starving yet they are hoarding maize? NCPB is just another cartel, IMO.

If farmers become self-reliant then the government would have a stable supply of grain to fill its silos. This of the farmer having to rely on the NCPB is madness and it’s a serious Achilles heels in this country what if that place burnt or something crazy happened this country would be phvcked!

We allow market forces to take over this should eventually even out the price of maize as now farmers will be able to diversify to planting other grains like kamut, Spelt or teff.

Theoretical yes, market forces would be ideal but that means farmers competing with S.Africa and Brazil whose maize price is 1/3 of our own here. Basically all our maize farmers will be redundant overnight. Two maize miller cartel will import maize and hound it driving prices to any amount you wish. Their strong point is the have the facilities and distribution network which another importer can replicate from the ships to the shops. Example is the petroleum cartel. Gok liberized the sector in 1992 hoping market forces will force prices downwards as world bank predicted. Shell, BP, caltex, Mobil, agip, kenol and esso formed a cartel, ended competition and drove the price upwards not downwards. We still need NCPB just better ran and with better safeguards.

Our consumption trends on maize are exposing us yearly. If you have been noticing they were made redundant years ago in line with a few making profits.

NCPB as a strategic food reserve is important no doubt but self-reliant farmers would have a ton more power and say what they want with there crops. Just like those wheat farmers in Timau where they run like a nice oiled machine and supply wheat to the government and private enterprises.

Maize farmers can form Sacco’s, build own silos and sell as a entity to NCPB. That would be a win win scenario for all.

Yote mshayasema lakini hamsemi nani hawa waliuza io mahindi mingi sana. kama hamuwezi kuwataja basi hamtusaidii…inabaki tu ni porojo ya Mogoka base.