Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe on Wednesday asked millers to purchase all the locally grown wheat that has not been purchased.
The purchase amounts to 400,000 bags, subsequent to which the government, through the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), will release the C60 import licenses for the 21 millers under the Cereal Millers Association (CMA).
A total shipment of 260,000 bags imported by the millers is lying at the port of Mombasa and attracting a demurrage fee of US$ 0.3 cents per tonne per day and only a total of 1.3 million bags have been bought so far.
Kagwe, who held a day-long meeting with wheat farmers and millers, further urged farmers to sell their wheat at the set prices of Sh5,300 per bag for Grade 1 wheat and Sh5,200 per bag for Grade 2 and not to accept lower prices.
“To restore trust in the tripartite agreement signed in 2010 between the Cereal Millers Association (CMA) and Cereal Growers Association (CGA), with the government as a guarantor, to have millers’ buy wheat at mutually agreed prices, and protect the interests of farmers at all costs, a Wheat Sector Standing Committee composed of the Ministry, CMA, CGA, NCPB, AFA, County governments and farmers was formed.
CS Kagwe noted that the Ministry would gazette this committee, whose key goal is halting the decline in local production, which has fallen to 8 percent of the annual consumption of 26 million bags.
It will further enforce compliance with the local wheat purchase programme, which obliges millers to purchase locally before they could qualify for the 10 per cent duty remission scheme under the East African Community (EAC) rules and get their import allocation quota.
In developing its terms of reference, the CS further implored the committee to leverage on technology to curate reliable data, restore credibility, accountability and transparency in the sector, as this would lead to better incomes for farmers’ and achieve food and nutrition security.
The war between wheat farmers and millers has been ongoing with demonstrations that began on Monday by farmers in Narok, Nakuru, Uasin Gishu and Timau over the poor prices paid by millers, despite the existence of a binding agreement between the two parties and set prices for wheat.
The farmers were claiming that there was flooding of the local market with imported wheat and calling on the government to regulate wheat importation volumes to ensure they have enough market for their produce.
Present during the Wednesday meeting were Narok County Governor Patrick Ntutu, Senator Ledama ole Kina, the National Assembly’s Deputy Speaker Gladys Boss Hon. Agnes Pareiyo (Narok North) and Silvester Ntutu (Narok South), the State Department for Agriculture Dr. Kipronoh Ronoh and representatives from the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), the National Cereals Board (NCPB), the Cereal Growers Association (CGA), the Cereal Millers Association (CMA) and scores of farmers.
By Wangari Ndirangu
