The National Irrigation Authority (NIA) plans to seek Sh550 million in supplementary funding to improve roads used to transport rice from farms to markets in the Mwea Irrigation Scheme.

NIA chairperson Gilbert Maluki said the proposed intervention would cover about 475 kilometres of roads and help reduce the cost of transporting produce, currently estimated at about Sh1,000 per trip.

He said the authority was working with other government agencies to ensure rice farmers get better returns from their produce.

“The motive we have here is to make sure the farmer gets value for his hard work,” Maluki said.

The team of the National Irrigation Authority, in consultation with KERA, has already mapped the road networks and come up with estimated total length and cost.

This comes as the government had also raised Sh1 billion through the Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC) to purchase rice from farmers.

According to Maluki, discussions are planned between the NIA, KNTC and other agencies to establish how the rice bought through KNTC can be supplied to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry responsible for special programmes. The arrangement would create a reliable market for locally produced rice while ensuring farmers benefit from government purchases.

Maluki said the agencies needed to coordinate their procurement and distribution activities to create a sustainable market for farmers.

Meanwhile, Mwea Rice Growers Multipurpose Cooperative Society chairman Ndege Muriuki said farmers had received payments for the last mop up of rice by the government.

“The had faced challenges over delayed payments but were now relieved after receiving their money.” Muriuki said.

He also called for greater support for farmers through subsidized fertilizer programmes, saying cooperatives had struggled to access the input in recent years.

Rice farmer Elijah Njoroge, however, raised concerns over inadequate water supply, noting the Thiba dam does not have sufficient water to support all farmers and called for government intervention to address the challenges affecting irrigation and rice production.

By Mutai Kipng’etich