AGRO FIRM SLASHES FERTILISER PRICE
NERIA Investment has announced a 20 percent reduction on fertiliser to support small-scale farmers and help them increase production.
General Manager, Martin Chaikatisha said, Neria had reduced the prices of fertiliser to help farmers produce more.
And, Mr. Chaikatisha announced that the fertiliser company plans to distribute about 180, 000 tonnes of fertiliser in the 2017/2018 farming season as part of the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP).
Mr. Chaikatisha said of the 180, 000 tonnes of fertiliser, 9,500 tonnes would be of compound D fertiliser while 90, 000 would be of urea.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, he said the decision by the government to involve agro dealers in the distribution of fertiliser and seed in the FISP programme was progressive.
He noted that the involvement of agro dealers will bring about competition, adding that it was through competition that the agriculture sector will develop.
“The competition is welcome we are supplying fertiliser to farmers under the E- voucher programme and have also registered as an agro dealer meaning farmers are able to get fertiliser from our depots,” Mr. Chaikatisha said.
He disclosed that all the depots around the country were equipped with point of sale machines. Mr. Chaikatisha however said agro dealers are able to buy fertiliser at a wholesale price.
‘We do not have a problem with the system that has been implemented by the government. As Neria we are adapting to competition and in line with our policy which is to build the small-scale farmers so that they can graduate from being small scale to being emergent and then commercial farmers we gone an extra mile to reduce the price of fertiliser,” he said.
Mr. Chaikatisha also said the reduction would increase production since the farmers would be able to get more fertiliser from the card thereby increasing productivity adding that would promote the growth of the agriculture sector.