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: 27 June 2018; Hits: 9276

Nyandarua farmers form groups to market their potatoes

More than 350 potato farmers in Nyandarua have formed groups to market their produce in a bid to improve their bargaining power, handling and storage.

In 2017, farmers lost Sh19.7bn worth of Irish potatoes due to poor handling and storage, transport and fungi attack according to the 2018 economic survey report released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in April this year.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, cooperatives provide over 100m jobs worldwide with more than one billion members. Cooperative societies play an important role in reducing poverty levels, improving food security and generating employment opportunities.

Farmers joining coops therefore can triple their income. In this, the societies support small agricultural producers and marginalized groups such as young people and women. They empower their members economically and socially and create sustainable rural employment through business models that are resilient to economic and environmental shocks.

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nyandarua potato

Farmers packaging potatoes

The farmers will now sell their potatoes in 50kg bags from the previous 110kg bags with the produce being bought by marketing agents through public auction in designated markets.

The produce will be inspected by the Agriculture and Food Authority officials to ascertain the quality and improve the livelihoods of farmers and consumers along the Irish potato value chain.

Joining the cooperative society is free and farmers are assisted in the entire registration process by officials from the Agriculture and Food Authority, the regulator of the agriculture sector in the country.

The total number of societies and unions registered grew by 7.4 per cent, from 18,573 in 2016 to 19,951 in 2017 according to the 2018 economic survey report.

A total of 67 multi-produce societies were registered in 2017 while the number of dairy societies increased by 11.4 per cent over the same period. There has been a sustained growth in the number of non-agricultural societies since 2014. The number of Savings and Credit societies grew by 4.8 per cent while that of other non-agricultural societies rose by 19.3 per cent in 2017. One agricultural union was registered in 2017.

In this, the total value of sales from co-operative societies went up by six million shillings to Sh10.5bn in 2017.

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: 26 June 2018; Hits: 6985

Report: Kenya and Nigeria tops in the Agri-Tech Startup markets in Africa

Kenya agritech Photo: Illuminum Greenhouses

Kenya and Nigeria are the leading markets in Agri-Tech Startup in Africa at 46.4 per cent of the total amount of startups according to the Exploring the African Agri-Tech Startup Ecosystem Report 2018, in all, 16 African countries which play host to tech startups and are active in the agricultural space.

Ghana is next with 14.7 per cent. These top three markets make up 61.1 per cent of the overall total. South Africa has 12.2 per cent of Africa’s agri-tech startups, while Uganda and Zimbabwe each have four. There are also startups in The Gambia, Zambia, Botswana, Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Somalia, Egypt, Mali and Cameroon.

Kenya’s pioneering role

Kenya was the pioneer of agri-tech in Africa. Back in 2010-2011, the continent’s first wave of agri-tech startups sprung up in the East African country, carving out a new niche for innovation.

A country where farming is deeply entrenched in the national identity - everyone owns, or aspires to own, a shamba - Kenyan entrepreneurs personally understood the obstacles to prosperous farming and set about addressing them using the increasingly prevalent mobile and online technologies available.

A new genre of information and knowledge sharing platform was born: even the rural subsistence farmer could get answers to his farming concerns via SMS and save or improve his harvest; smallholder farmers suddenly had access to new markets at fair prices via the internet, rather than relying on sly middlemen.

By the end of 2013, entrepreneurs in a couple of other countries had begun to join the party. Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Ghana and South Africa had all seen the odd agri-tech startup launch; but still seven of the 13 agri-tech startups operating in Africa were based in Kenya.

While Kenya has continued to boast a strong agri-tech entrepreneurship space in the following years, since 2015 West Africa - Nigeria in particular - has suddenly come onboard.

Between 2015 and 2017, 16 agri-tech startups launched in Nigeria (only three pre-date 2015). Nigeria now ties with Kenya for the number of agri-tech startups active in the two countries; and will almost certainly overtake Kenya by the end of 2018 given the sheer rate of new ventures launching.

Next door to Nigeria, Ghana has quietly developed its own agri-tech market - the third largest on the continent.

And so, while Kenya might be to thank for the emergence of agri-tech in Africa, West Africa seems to be taking over the reins.

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: 25 June 2018; Hits: 7274

Our fertilizer is clean, says world’s largest fertilizer distributor

The world’s largest fertilizer distributor, OCP has refuted claims made against it and its directors concerning its importation of fertilizers to Kenya that were allegedly non-compliant with Kenyan regulatory standards.

In a statement, the exporter rejected the claims stating that they complied fully with Kenyan procedures and regulation in connection with the cargo targeted by this action. They added that the allegations neither reflected the commercial practices nor the rigorous quality assurance processes to which OCP Kenya adheres to.

Last January, the Moroccan owned company is alleged to have imported compound fertilizer weighing six million kilograms which upon testing, failed to meet Kenya’s standardization mark. This has brought a lot of trouble for Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) for clearing the Sh1.4 bn worth of fertilizer.

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Fertilizer in a depot

Expenditure on farm inputs increased by 14 per cent from Sh58bn in 2016 to Sh66.1bn in 2017 according to the 2018 economic survey report

In this, expenditure on fertilizers, fuel and power accounted for more than half of the total expenditure on agricultural inputs during the review period.

Purchases of seeds and manufactured feeds increased by 23.9 per cent and 10.3 per cent, respectively in 2017

OCP Kenya directors alongside Charles Ongwae KEBS Managing Director and other officials were over the weekend charged with attempted murder, aiding the commission of a felony, abuse of office, breach of office and selling substandard goods.

According to the Director of public Prosecutions Noordin Haji, after the fertilizer was tested the first time, it failed to meet the standard set by KEBS VIDE KS 158:2012 and therefore declared rejected. The company appealed against the first testing and a re-test was done by KEBS.

The compound fertilizer failed to meet the standard for the second time. However, after all the failed tests, the fertilizer was still released to the market as opposed to destruction or re-shipping to the country of origin.

In its defense, OCP stated that, “the full compliance of this cargo with such procedures and regulations has been indisputably confirmed by independent expert analyses performed by several internationally renowned inspection agencies like SGS, Bureau Veritas and Cropnuts”.

Other facing the charges include KEBS Director of Quality Assurance Eric Chesire, Chief Manager Inspection Eric Ochieng and seven other senior individuals for approving the importation of substandard fertilizer and fake Import Standardization Mark (ISM MARK).

These officials are facing prosecution over procurement of fake ISM stickers as they had been procured by KEBS from M/s Madras Private Security Limited. The mark supplied was found to be prone to photocopying, scanning and misuse by corrupt traders hence defeating the purpose of its procurement. This means that KEBS committed the government to the payment of over Sh800 million for the supply of the mark.

In its statement, OCP Kenya stated that the new customized fertilizer introduced to the country has been very successful. The micronutrient enriched products have been adapted to local soils and crops through research collaboration with Kenyan laboratories. The customized fertilizers have demonstrated their positive yields on farmers in terms of yield and competitiveness.

It continues to state that OCP group continuously observes the highest national and international legal standards and best practices in its operations worldwide. This is evidenced by its activities on the ground and Kenya is no exception as the company has a mission to continuously act for the benefit of Kenyan agricultural development.

“While we intend to actively and fully cooperate with the Kenyan authorities in connection with this matter, we reserve our rights to take legal action against the parties behind these baseless and opportunistic accusations,” said the statement.

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