Small-scale tea farmers affiliated with the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) will now get back dues deducted to meet fertiliser costs in December.
This is after the agency on Thursday announced that the funds will be paid together with the November Green Leaf (GL).
“Small-scale tea farmers affiliated to KTDA are advised that the fertiliser suspense refunds earlier scheduled for payment by January 5, 2025, will now be paid together with the November Green Leaf (GF) in December 2024," the notice reads.
"Distribution of pending fertiliser has been fast-tracked necessitating the suspense refund," it adds.
This means farmers will not have to wait much
longer as per the earlier communication by KTDA which had said the refunds will be made alongside
the green leaf payment in January.
“Reconciliation for the bags each farmer has been issued is ongoing and their accounts will be regularised later,” KTDA stated.
The agency revealed that it had ordered 96,988 metric
tons for the current year and the final batch of 8,000 metric tons of
fertiliser to be distributed to the farmers by the first week of December
2024.
According to KTDA, the cost for a 50kg bag of NPK,
chemically compounded fertiliser was procured at Sh3,400 through competitive
bidding in 2024.
However, the agency said the government subsidy of Sh2 billion in November 2024 reduced the price to Sh2,500 per bag.
“We have released Sh2 billion to subsidise the cost of
fertiliser and that deductions made by the organisation should be paid back to
farmers by December 5, 2023,” Agriculture PS Paul Ronoh stated in
November.
The cost of a 50kg bag is determined by several factors including the cost of natural gas (a key component in the manufacture of NPK chemically compounded fertiliSer), exchange rates, global supply constraints, high crude oil costs and the cost of shipment among other factors.
