Ruto says digital farmer register shut fertiliser cartels

Government subsidized fertilizer in a cereals board. [Courtesy]

President William Ruto has credited the government’s digital farmer registration platform with closing loopholes that allowed brokers and cartels to interfere with the distribution of subsidised fertiliser.

Ruto said the platform has grown from about 400,000 farmers when his administration took office to 8.9 million registered farmers, giving the government a clearer picture of the agricultural sector.

“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,” he said.

According to Ruto, the system has also transformed access to subsidised fertiliser by ensuring that only registered farmers with valid government vouchers can purchase the commodity.

He said previously, anybody with money could walk into a National Cereals and Produce Board outlet and purchase fertiliser, creating room for middlemen to buy the commodity and resell it at a profit.

“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.

Ruto said the voucher system now 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.

The President said the database was also helping the government plan agricultural financing and determine the number of farmers involved in different value chains, including tea and maize.