President William Ruto on Tuesday lowered the fertilizer prices from Ksh 6500 to Ksh 3500 per kilo.
In his speech after his inauguration on September 13 at Kasarani Stadium, Ruto assured people that the new prices would come into effect next week.
“For the short rains, we have already made arrangements to make 1.4 million bags of fertilizers available at Ksh3,500 for a 50 kg bag – down from Ksh6,500.”
The head of state had promised to work on lowering the prices during a thanksgiving service last Sunday.
“This fertilizer will be available from next week. I appeal to county governments in East, Central and Western regions to work with us in making sure that this fertilizer is available so that we can begin the journey to increase our food production initiatives.” He spoke.
The President went to clarify that the cost of productions and commodity prices will affect they mandate to lower the cost of living.
“In our economic forums during the campaigns, citizens shared their anxiety and pain over this matter. On fuel subsidy, taxpayers spent 160 billion in the last four months alone, if the subsidy continues to the end of the financial year, it will cost Ksh280 billion equivalent to the entire national government development budget.” He explained.
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In his efforts to make the Ministry of Agriculture great, Ruto promised to address the challenges in the production sector and focus more on empowering farmers.
“The cost-of-living challenges are related to production. Our strategy to bring down the cost of living is based on empowering producers. The focus for maize harvest this year is thirty million bags against a normal production of forty million bags. The main cause of the decline is the high cost of farm inputs,” he noted.