The Agriculture Cabinet Secretary, Mutahi Kagwe, has announced a ban on the importation of 50 pesticides which have been deemed unfit.
Speaking in Nakuru on Wednesday, April 7, the CS confirmed that the products, which he did not name but claimed that he received a list of the brands from the Pest Control Products Board(PCPB), were also prohibited in their country of origin.
According to the CS, the government will now empower local manufacturers of pesticide products to promote safer locally produced products, especially from locally grown pyrethrum.
"People from the PPCB have given me a list of 50 chemical products that we have been importing from other countries to control our pests, and we have decided that we will stop the importation of the products," he stated.
The CS has further assured that the government will collaborate with the county governments to ensure that farmers have the necessary resources at their disposal so as to expand the country's pyrethrum farming from the current 10,000 acres to over 70,000 acres to boost the production of these products.
Kagwe further assured that this step will also play a critical role in creating job opportunities in the country's agricultural ecosystem.
"We are going to call a meeting of all the processors in Nairobi and the Ministry so that we can straighten things out with pyrethrum processing," he stated.
"We will make sure that we are working together with the county governments to ensure that we provide farmers with agricultural advisors, fertilisers, seeds, and markets for farmers so that they may increase pyrethrum farming in the country," he said.
The announcement comes a month after the CS further assured that the country is ready to fully comply with the new regulations by the European Union (EU) to ensure the elimination of False Codling Moth (FCM) in rose flowers.
Following a study by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that revealed that rose flowers are at risk of FCM, the EU, last year in July, enacted Regulation (EU) 2024/2004, mandating stricter pest management measures, which include increased sampling rates and comprehensive protocols to prevent, detect, and control pests, especially the FCM.
Kagwe, in a statement on Tuesday, March 25, claimed that the EU had rejected 95 Kenyan export consignments and intercepted 48 others, which is equivalent to 2.1 million stems, due to FCM, which had an estimated value of Ksh 147.1 million.
However, to prevent further rejections, the CS assured that the PCPB had registered several pest control products for the management of the pest in addition to other measures.
