President William Ruto has said the government’s digital farmer registration platform has helped eliminate brokers and cartels that previously disrupted the distribution of subsidised fertiliser.
Ruto said the platform, which initially had about 400,000 farmers when his administration came to power, now has 8.9 million farmers registered.
Speaking during a presidential dialogue at the Agriculture and Food Summit at Jamhuri Park, Ruto said the registration had given the government reliable data on the number of farmers in the country and enabled better targeting of agricultural inputs.
“When we came in, that platform had 400,000 farmers. We have now populated that platform, and I must appreciate the participation and collaboration of both chiefs, assistant chiefs, and more particularly our county governments,” he said.
“We now have 8.9 million farmers on our digital platform. That registration has helped us achieve many. Number one, we are sure today how many farmers we have.”
Ruto said the system had also transformed the way subsidised fertiliser is distributed, closing loopholes that allowed middlemen and people without farms to buy the commodity and resell it to farmers.
He said previously, fertiliser could be purchased by anyone with money, creating room for brokers to enter the supply chain and make profits at the expense of farmers.
“In the past, fertiliser to the National Cereals and Produce Board, anybody could appear and buy. And most of the time, middlemen and sometimes brokers came and bought fertiliser,” Ruto said.
“And some people, even who did not have any farm, so long as they had money, they would come and buy fertiliser and they would go and sell to farmers.”
He said farmers must now be registered on the government platform before accessing subsidised fertiliser.
“Now, I can tell you without fear of any contradiction: if you walk into any National Cereals and Produce Board and buy fertilisers, you will not be sold a single bag unless you have a voucher that comes from the ministry,” he said.
According to Ruto, the voucher identifies the farmer, the size of the farm and the amount of fertiliser they qualify to purchase.
“What has that done? It has eliminated all the cartels that were disturbing us with fertiliser,” he said.
Ruto said the farmer database was also helping the government assess agricultural financing needs.
He cited the Hustler Fund, saying a significant proportion of loans disbursed through the programme was being used by farmers to purchase fertiliser.
“Many farmers use Hustler Fund to buy fertiliser. In fact, almost 35 per cent of money we lend to one another goes to buy fertiliser, which to me is a very positive thing,” he said.
The President said the data was also helping the government establish the number of farmers engaged in different agricultural value chains.
“We now know how many tea farmers we have. How many maize farmers we have. And we can plan ahead of time using that data,” he said.
He said the government was using the information to intervene at the production level and improve agricultural planning.
