The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) has disclosed that smallholder farmers affiliated with the agency will receive fertilizer suspense refunds by January 5, 2025.
In a statement on Thursday, November 28, KTDA noted that the refunds will be issued together with the green leaf payment.
The agency maintained that it had ordered 96,988 metric tonnes of fertilizer this year and the final batch will be distributed by the first week of December 2024.
“Smallholder tea farmers affiliated to KTDA will receive the fertilizer suspense refunds together with the Green Leaf (GL) payment by the 5th of January 2025.
"KTDA had ordered 96,988 MT for the current year and the final batch of 8000 MT fertilizer shall be distributed to the farmers by the first week of December 2024 and reconcilliation shall be done to establish refund payable for each farmer," KTDA stated.
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The agency noted that this year the cost for a 50kg bag of NPK chemically compounded fertilizer was Ksh3,400 and was procured through competitive bidding.
However, KTDA disclosed that a subsidy of Ksh2 billion by the government in November reduced the price to Ksh2,500 per bag.
“On behalf of tea farmers affiliated with KTDA, we thank the government of Kenya for the subsidy that led to reduced cost of fertilizers and hence better payments to farmers,” KTDA explained.
In April, the government ordered the suspension and seizure of fake fertilizer distributed under the subsidy programme after receiving test results from the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS).
The then Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi confirmed that fertilisers distributed by KEL Chemicals branded Kelphos Plus, Kelphos gold and NPK 10:26:10 did not meet all required test parameters.
