State to buy Mwea farmers’ rice to clear stock ahead of new harvest

MUTAI KIPNGETICH- KNA 

The Government will buy all the rice in stock from farmers in the Mwea Irrigation Scheme to make room for the next harvesting season.

This decision follows numerous complaints from farmers that the government is importing large quantities of rice despite having locally produced stock in their stores with no market.

The farmers also expressed concern over imported rice being branded to look like the premium Mwea rice, calling it unfair market competition.

The Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Mutahi Kagwe, has sent a team from the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) and the Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC) to address concerns raised by farmers under the Mwea Irrigation Scheme regarding the impact of rice importation and the sale of locally produced rice.

Bruno Linyiru, the Director General of the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) of Kenya, who visited Mwea assured over 8,500 farmers that the rice that is available will all be bought by KNTC, and payment processed promptly.

He denied that Mwea produced rice compete with the rice that is imported saying it gets to a totally different market.

“What is produced in Mwea is niche market-oriented rice, that is very good quality, very aromatic, and has a different market, therefore, we came here to see what it is that we are holding and how we can make this work,” Linyiru said.

“As the regulator we have also noticed concerns raised by the society and we also know this could be true that there are few unscrupulous traders who could be packaging imported rice to make it look like the Basmati rice or the Pishori rice that we have in Mwea. We will be cracking down on this,” he noted.