Desperation has gripped hundreds of farmers across Kenya’s North Rift region, with many resorting to camping outside the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) depot in Eldoret in a bid to secure topdressing fertiliser. The shortage has arrived at one of the most sensitive moments in the maize growing calendar, fuelling deep anxiety about food production across the region this season.
At the centre of the crisis is a severe deficit of Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (CAN), the fertiliser that North Rift farmers rely on to boost their maize crops during the crucial growth stage. Without sufficient topdressing, yields are expected to suffer significantly — a prospect that is alarming smallholder farmers and food security observers in equal measure.
The human cost is perhaps best captured by Jane Kwambai, who has spent an entire week camped at the depot after making multiple expensive trips from Kiplombe to Eldoret City. “I have spent a lot of money on the road traveling to Eldoret City from Kiplombe to get topdressing fertiliser,” she told reporters. Despite placing an order for ten bags of CAN, she was informed she would receive only three — a fraction of the quantity her crops require.
NCPB regional manager Gilbert Rotich attributed the shortage to unusually high demand for inputs this season, offering assurance that a consignment of over 3.2 million bags would reach farmers within two weeks. Yet a separate source within the board told reporters that transporters are also a contributing factor, having demanded extra pay following recent fuel price increases — a dispute that has disrupted timely distribution across the region.
Kenya Farmers Association (KFA) Director Kipkorir Menjo was candid in his criticism of how government agencies have handled the situation. He highlighted what he described as a glaring coordination failure: planting fertiliser was being pushed out at the precise moment farmers required topdressing, and topdressing supplies were arriving when it was time to plant. This cycle of mismatched distribution, he argued, points to a deeper structural breakdown in the fertiliser supply chain.
Menjo went further, warning that unless the topdressing shortfall is resolved urgently, Kenya’s maize output for the current season will take a significant knock — with the North Rift, widely regarded as the country’s grain basket, bearing the heaviest burden. He called on President Ruto to intervene directly and cut through the distribution bottleneck before the planting window shuts entirely.
With the season already well advanced and every day mattering for crop nutrition, farmers camped at the Eldoret depot say returning home without fertiliser is simply not an option. For communities whose livelihoods and food security depend almost entirely on maize, the pressure to leave with something — anything — has never felt more acute.
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