News Small-scale farmers could earn Sh15bn if memo is adoptedFarmers harvest maize from their home garden in North Kapuonja village of Kisumu West last year. FILE PHOTO | NMGSmallholder farmers could earn up to Sh15 billion annually if a Ministry of Agriculture memo to the Cabinet requiring 30 per cent of public institutions’ produce procurement be directly reserved for farmers is adopted. The ministry says the Cabinet memo is intended to link small-scale farmers to the market through obligating all government agencies to buy their food supplies directly from them. Currently, the Public Procurement and Disposal (Preference and Reservations) Regulations 2011 stipulates that the youth, women and persons with disabilities be given a certain percentage of all government tenders. The study shows that for every one acre of maize planted by small scale farmers, only 0.72 per cent of the seeds used are hybrid.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 14, 2017 20:15 UTC