The subsidy is Not the Way of Addressing Food Production- Linturi
The Government has disclosed that subsidies are not the best way of addressing food production in the country and reduce post–harvest losses.
Speaking during the sitting on the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock held on Wednesday,22nd March 2023, Cabinet Secretary MithikaLinturi said that there were pending bills of Sh14 Billion owed to the Programme.
“The National Treasury provided budgetary support of Ksh 12 billion which was used to pay Millers, farmers, and suppliers of maize to NCPB,” said the CS.
According to the report, the outstanding pending bills of Ksh 1.39 billion is the fee owed to NCPB.
The Ministry stated that the figure of 3.267 billion submitted in the Supplementary Estimates had been arrived at before reconciliation was done.
The CS Informed the public in the meeting that he was not aware of the difference in the contacts as the contracts were prepared by the Office of the Attorney General.
He said that millers took the Ministry to court and it was agreed that the Ministry pay an interest of 12% to 13% on the amount owed to the millers.
Linturi, however, stated that there is a need to encourage Kenyans to eat other foods besides maize.
“Despite the fact that there are various types of food in Kenya, most citizens only recognize maize as a source of carbohydrates, this has put a lot of pressure on maize given that it’s also used as an ingredient in the preparation of animal feeds,” said the CS.
The committee observed that the figures for maize supplied in the Program provided by the ministry, Cereal Millers Association, and the Grain Mill Owners Association are all different.
The committee noted
that there was a discrepancy in the amounts submitted in the Ministry submission and that presented during the supplementary Estimate No 1 for FY 2022/23 and the figure was mainly because of repeated invoices hence the figure of Ksh 3.023 billion.
The committee observed that the contract submitted by the ministry in their presentation was different from the contract signed by millers.
“The contract submitted by the Ministry was similar to that presented to the committee by the Grain Mill Owners Association while the contract signed by all millers was similar to the one presented to the Committee by the Cereal Millers Association,” Stated the Report.
The committee urged the government to maintain stable production and prices and to focus on longtime interventions that will improve productivity and lower the production costs per unit.
The committee concluded that there should be increased investment in irrigation irrigated by agriculture by both the National and county governments as in the case of the Galana- Kulalu Irrigation Project to increase the area under irrigation.
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