Potato rules
Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) has launched a crackdown on traders violating the 50-kilogramme rule in packaging of Irish potatoes even as the government moves with speed to enforce the 2021 potato regulations.
This comes even as the agriculture regulator announced that it had trained 254 crop inspectors to help in the crackdown against those found violating Chapter 16 of the Crops Act which banned packaging the potatoes produce in extended bags.
Agriculture Food Authority (AFA) Crop Inspectorate Director Mr Ferdinand Masinde said that the crackdown was aimed at ensuring that packaging in the required standard of 50 kilogrammes was achieved adding that the enforcement would be executed in the entire value chain from the farm to the markets.
The Director indicated that AFA was also ensuring that all Irish potato transporters are registered, that a bag of potato weighs 50kg and all storage units and go downs are registered in order to ensure high standards in the whole value chain are maintained.
Masinde said they had sensitized stakeholders on the regulations and they expected that value chain players would comply with the regulations by reversing the past scenarios where potatoes were usually weighed in 110-kilogram bags which subjected farmers to huge losses.
Standardization issues started long before creation of AFA with by laws that were adopted by defunct municipal and county councils through Legal Notice No 113 of 2008, following 2005 standardization policy which set a Sh2,000 as fine or a term not exceeding six months’ imprisonment.
The law also required officers in charge of markets to block any entry of the produce for sale in the extended bags.Speaking during a meeting that brought together agricultural experts from Nakuru, Meru, Nyandarua, Narok, Nandi, and Nairobi counties, the crop Director said that the inspectors would monitor production, weighing, handling and processing of the potato produce to ensure compliance. Twenty other produce including legumes, cereals, roots and tubers are also covered by the law.
AFA’s announcement comes at a time when potato growing counties have been struggling with ways to enforce the law crafted to protect farmers from exploitation. The authority is charged with appointing inspectors to ensure that all stakeholders adhere to all potato guidelines and regulations.
Masinde explained that the law allows inspectors in potato growing counties to seize and detain Irish potatoes packaged or transported in a manner that does not conform to the regulations at the cost of the offender. “We are aware that brokers have mismanaged this industry, we are here now to protect the interest of farmers’ funds to ensure they get what they deserve,” he said.
Nakuru County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Mr Leonard Bor indicated that agriculture officers have been sensitizing the farmers on the potato packaging regulations through barazas, field days, and exhibitions.
He said the County government was working with Egerton University, the National Potato Council of Kenya (NPCK) and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KARLO) to help potato farmers reduce production costs and boost their incomes.
The partnership, he added was aligned with climate smart innovations and technologies geared towards cushioning farmers against climate change challenges like drought, floods, diseases and pests.
According to the CECM the initiative’s objective was to promote sustainable potato production through adoption of climate-smart potato farming practices, Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) use of certified seeds and promotion of climate-smart agriculture technologies and innovations.
Mr Bor elaborated that the County Government was supporting activities aligned to climate smart innovations to ensure that farmers adopt climate smart agricultural practices and technologies which are geared towards cushioning them against the challenges they are facing.
While disclosing that they were also incorporating seed producers, fertilizer companies, financial institutions among other key actors in the venture, the CECM explained that climate smart agriculture practices included development and use of drought and heat tolerant potato varieties, finding use for waste products from potatoes, training on the costs and benefits of crop insurance, reduction of post-harvest losses through support of agricultural machinery and adoption of biological pesticides.
Bor stated that Governor Susan Kihika’s administration was supporting initiatives to enable more farmers to access certified potato seeds to help increase food production to enhance food security. He affirmed that they were committed through public-private partnerships to increase high quality certified potato seed by 25 per cent through rapid multiplication, increased field seed bulking as well as capacity building of commercial seed growers in the County.
The Agricultural Development Corporation’s (ADC) seed development project in Nakuru’s Molo Sub-County is the main center of potato seed production, storage and distribution in the country with the Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organization (KALRO) potato research in Tigoni in Kiambu County supplementing the Molo project.
Chief Executive Officer of the National Potato Council of Kenya (NPCK), Wachira Kaguongo said that over the past three years the seed supply had been erratic affecting production of the crop which is a scheduled crop under the Crops Act of 2013.
Nakuru is the second largest producer of the potato crop in the Country accounting for 18.9 percent of national production. Other top potato producing counties are Elgeyo Marakwet, Makueni, Embu, Tharaka Nithi, Kajiado, Samburu and Kwale. According to the NPCK in the country the crop is cultivated by over 800,000 farmers with a total production ranging from 1 to 1.4 million tonnes worth between Sh30 to 40 billion per year. Small scale farmers account for about 83 percent of total production.
A study done by the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) has established that poor planting material is behind diminishing potato production in Kenya.
According to agricultural experts in seed production, only about 8 percent of middle level farmers with lands measuring between 10 acres and above rely on seeds supplied by ADC Molo project. Others opted to get clean tubers from private seed producers like Sygenta, Kisima, Suera, Agreco, GTIL, Gen-Biotech, Singus Enterprises and the Narok based Kimingi Farm.