The country’s fertilizer imports reduced by three- quarters ahead of this year’s main planting season with data from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) showing that approximately 143, 569.5 tonnes of chemical fertilizer were imported into the country during the first quarter of the year.
The imports represented a 66.27 per cent decrease compared to the 425,675.20 tonnes imported in the same period in 2023, with KNBS revealing that spending on fertilizer imports decreased by 69.82 per cent in the first quarter of the year, dropping to Ksh9.69 billion from Ksh32.10 billion in the same period the previous year.
This indicates that the cost for traders to import a tonne of fertilizer averaged Ksh67,488 which represented a 10.51 per cent decrease from the previous year’s average of Ksh75,411.
Increased importation of farming inputs last year has helped stabilize the supply of staple maize, maintaining fairly steady prices in most parts of the country.
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The fertilizer subsidy program was a top priority for President William Ruto when he assumed office in September 2022, during a period when the country was grappling with record-high maize prices.
This was primarily caused by a severe drought in 2022, considered the worst in forty years, and disruptions in global supply chains resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine, which drove fertilizer prices to unprecedented highs.
The government’s price support reduced the cost of a 50-kilogram bag of subsidized fertilizer from a high of KSh6,500 to KSh3,500 initially, and further down to the current level of KSh2,500.
“In order to support agricultural production, the Government rolled out a countrywide farmer registration and fertilizer subsidy programme that has made available 5.5 million bags to farmers across Kenya,” Treasury wrote in the 2024 Budget Policy Statement (BPS).
“The Government has also progressively reduced the cost of fertilizer from KSh6, 500 to KSh2,500, increased maize acreage under production by an extra 200, 000 acres, and enhanced maize production by an additional 18 million bags,”
By Frank Mugwe
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