KTDA to Refund Farmers in January Following Fertiliser Hitch

The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), on Thursday, November 28, announced that all smallholder tea farmers affiliated with the agency would receive their fertiliser suspense refunds in January 2025.

“Smallholder tea farmers affiliated to KTDA will receive the fertilizer suspense refunds together with the Green leaf (GL) payable in early January 2025,” a section of a statement by KTDA read.

However, in an X post accompanying the announcement, the agency clarified that the payments would be made by the 5th day of January.

According to the notice, reconciliation will be conducted to establish the refund payable for each farmer and will include, among others, the quality of the fertilisers ordered as well as the amount.

This development comes barely two weeks after Deputy President Kithure Kindiki announced that the government had released Ksh2 billion for fertiliser subsidy.

The subsidy reduced the price of fertiliser from Ksh3400 per 50kg bag to Ksh2500.

“The Government of Kenya gave a subsidy of Ksh2 billion in November 2024 reducing the price to Kshs 2,500.00 per bag,” the KTDA explained.

“This year, the cost for a 50kg bag of NPK, chemically compounded fertilizer was 3400.00 procured through competitive bidding.”

The agency further lauded the government’s decision to reimburse the farmers, thereby improving their earnings all around.

“On behalf of tea farmers affiliated to KTDA, we thank the Government of Kenya for the subsidy that led to reduced cost of fertilizers and hence better payments to farmers,” they stated.

In 2024, KTDA ordered 96,988 Metric Tonnes of fertiliser, and the final batch of 8000 Metric Tonnes is expected to be distributed to farmers in early December.

In the first supplementary budget for the 2024/25 financial year budget, the allocation of fertiliser subsidy was increased from Ksh7.5 billion to Ksh10 billion.