Parliament has ordered the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) to take over the country’s maize seed subsidy program, removing Kenya Seed Company from its role amid concerns over delayed delivery and financial losses.
- •Lawmakers said the state-run board, which already manages fertilizer distribution through county networks, could reach farmers more efficiently and prevent disruptions during the planting season, which is already 60% complete.
- •The directive follows a circular issued by Agriculture Principal Secretary Kiprono Ronoh instructing the Kenya Seed Company to provide subsidized maize seed at KSh 250 per kilogram.
- •Lawmakers argued that combining fertilizer and seed distribution under one state-managed framework would reduce logistical risks and prevent the season from being compromised.
“Let the NCPB be mandated to use whatever mechanism they use for fertilizers to also procure seeds for subsidy since they already have a mechanism for farmers to get fertilizer based on their farm size, and that is also how seed subsidy should be,” John Mutunga (MP Tigania West), Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, said .
The maize seed subsidy is part of a broader farm-input strategy designed to support millions of Kenyan farmers ahead of the long rains. Earlier this year, the government distributed three million bags of fertilizer, targeting seven million farmers, as part of the 2026 Long Rains National Fertiliser Subsidy Programme, with a total of 12.3 million bags planned for the year.
The Kenya Seed Company disclosed that it has yet to implement the maize subsidy program, citing a combination of financial and procedural constraints. The firm warned that the government-mandated price of KSh 250 per kilogram falls below its production cost of KSh 257.40, creating a potential loss of KSh 7.40 for every kilogram sold under the program.
Beyond the cost implications, the company emphasized that the directive came from the Agriculture Principal Secretary rather than the Cabinet Secretary, raising questions about its legal authority and leaving the firm exposed to regulatory uncertainty.
“If we start discussing a directive that isn't accompanied by a Cabinet memo, we are entering the same quagmire we faced in previous seasons, where we were pressured into accepting a directive from a PS who isn’t a policymaker,” said the Kenya Seed Company Chairperson, Purity Ngirici.
“The policymaker is the CS, and if he doesn't commit himself by issuing a Cabinet memo on the subsidy, then we're going in circles over the same issue,” she added.
MPs also proposed that the KSh 2 billion allocated for the seed subsidy be split: part to settle unpaid bills from the previous year, with the remainder used by NCPB to implement the current program immediately.
“Our farmers are not complaining about fertilizer. Why don’t we use the same infrastructure to execute the seed subsidy? My proposal is that the money for both fertilizer and seeds subsidy should go to NCPB, which will then source from Kenya Seed and distribute to farmers,” Soy MP David Kiplagat said.
