- Farmers are required to apply for a license to grow fruits and vegetables; in a new regulation, the license will cost Sh10,000 from Neema.
- Farmers will also have to pay Sh2500 for soil testing and analysis, Sh4700 for water testing and analysis, and Sh5000 for certification.
- The farmers will have to cough more and must also acquire a certificate/license from the pest control board at just Sh 60000.
- People also risk a jail term for buying fruits and vegetables from an unlicensed farmer, and they could spend between 6 months and 2 years behind bars.
Farmers will also need to undergo two years of mandatory first aid training and purchase the kits for Sh 15000. In addition to the existing laws, the new regulations strictly prohibit borrowing farm inputs from a neighbour. Only registered and authorised seed companies should be the source of seeds for farmers.
The government in Kenya is preparing to implement the most stringent agricultural laws in the world, a move that would restrict more than three million farmers from selling fruits and vegetables.
The required restrictions, which the government has declared would be “anchored in law,” will mean that only major farmers, firms, and importers will be authorised to provide fruit and vegetables in Kenya.
Serious fines will apply to any trader who buys fruit and vegetables from uncertified farmers.
As a result of the sanctions, intermediaries, distributors, processors, and any direct buyer who purchases fruit and vegetables from a farmer who has not been certified as having followed the obligatory KS1758 Kenyan standard, which is 55 pages long, will be subject to the penalties.
Presented to the public as a measure to ensure food safety, the standard imposes more than five hundred additional regulations on farmers, potentially disrupting the supply of over ninety percent of the country’s locally consumed fruit and vegetables.
Farmers will need to submit an application for NEMA licenses at a minimum cost of Sh10,000 in order to cultivate vegetables.
Additionally, they will be required to conduct soil and water analyses at a cost ranging from Sh2,500 to Sh5,000, pay for certification with a national or international standards certifier, and prepare dozens of additional records, including an analysis of the nutrient content of any compost or manure that they choose to use.
The international agricultural non-governmental organization CABI published research in July stating that it would be impossible for any one farmer to cover the cost of the certification.
The results were reached as a result of a project that was supported by assistance and secured certification for the only farmer’s organisations that had not previously been accredited. These groups accounted for around 70 of Kenya’s 4.5 million farmers.
Rough estimates indicate that each farmer will incur costs exceeding Sh250,000.
After conducting a survey on Kenyan smallholder farmers, Mercy Corps discovered that two-thirds of farmers make less than Sh7,740 per month from their product.
However, the average earnings from fruit and vegetables are higher than those from other foods.
However, in an interview with FarmBizAfrica.com, Collins Otieno, a spokesman for the Horticultural Crop Directorate (HCD) of the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), confirmed that all farmers will be required to adhere to the standard.
The standard also mandates the keeping and submission of farmers’ identification documents, plot records, and growing records to every buyer of produce.
In addition to the HCD, other agricultural organisations, such as the lobbying groups for major farmers, the Fresh Goods Consortium of Kenya, and FPEAK, as well as foreign agricultural organisations, have all stated that the guidelines would be mandatory for farmers who sell their goods inside Kenya’s borders.
Despite TradeMark Africa’s substantial funding from foreign aid for workshops, strategies, and the implementation of the new rules, none of these organizations have addressed the scale of the disruption to the country’s food supplies and the temptation for enforcers to accept bribes in situations where buyers have no alternative food sources available.
In Kenya, horticulture is the most significant agricultural sub-sector. In January 2024, FarmBizAfrica conducted a countrywide survey and found that 78% of the 155 participating farmers grew at least one horticultural crop on their farm.
According to a study conducted on Kenyan smallholder farmers, these crops provide an average total monthly revenue of Sh21,115.39 for the farmers in the country.
All things considered, the government would be depriving farmers of incomes exceeding 280 billion shillings annually.
Kenya Standard 1758:2016 (KS 1758), which specifies the Horticulture Industry Code of Practice, contains the newly implemented regulations.
