Mwea MP Mary Maingi has urged the government to consider waiving debts amounting to Sh99 million owed by rice farmers in her constituency.
Mwea Irrigation Scheme located in Kirinyaga county produces 80 per cent of the rice consumed in the country and plays a major role in enhancing food security.
But the MP said the debt has been affecting farmers’ earnings and as such, the government should intervene and take the burden off them like it has done in other agricultural sectors.
“I hear people talking about coffee debts being waived. Rice farmers are farmers too, waive that bill,” the MP told President Ruto during his visit to the county to launch and commission various projects.
In 2020, the national government waived Sh100 million debt owed by Kirinyaga rice farmers to the National Irrigation Board and which had led to water rationing.
The rice irrigation scheme started in 1954 and has 18,070 farmers with over 30,000 acres under irrigation farming.
MP Maingi also called on the government to establish a rice fund that will provide cheap loans to farmers, similar to the Cherry Fund, which provides credit to coffee farmers at an interest rate of three per cent.
“I have been sent by my farmers and they say they want a rice fund so they can access subsidised credit juts like coffee farmers,” she said.
But the President told the MP that plans are underway to set aside funds to waive the rice debts and that he will be visiting her constituency soon.
“Relax… All the other things you have asked for, I’ll be coming to Mwea soon and I’ll do something,” Ruto said.
Maingi also called for the revival of Mwea Ginnery to support cotton farmers whose number has risen following the introduction of BT cotton that is disease resistant and takes a short time to mature.
Earlier, Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro who is also the chairperson of the budget committee in the National Assembly had announced that Sh2 billion has been set aside to waive coffee debts.