Kenya eyes food security status

Kenya started its march towards food security Saturday after President Kibaki unveiled a new plan to oversee food production in the next decade.

The grand roadmap --Agricultural Sector Development Strategy, 2010-2020-- will spearhead the fight against poverty and hunger as the country inches towards its dream of being a middle-income economy by 2030.

Speaking at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi Saturday, President Kibaki said the government was changing tack to have agriculture drive Kenya’s economy to the ambitious annual growth of 10 per cent expected in the next two decades.

The President said the government will make changes to the current laws “so that individual farmers feel encouraged to shift from subsistence crop production to market-oriented commercial production"

“(We’ll ensure) that farmers can access affordable credit even if it means changing our credit laws in favour of farming enterprises,” he said.

The shift to commercial agriculture, he said, will ensure affordable provision of seeds, fertiliser and agro-chemicals to farmers. Also, agricultural institutions will be boosted “for extension, research and innovations, agro-processing and marketing".

Rural infrastructure will also get a boost to ensure that farmers access markets, plus, they will also be cushioned from losses through  “farm insurance schemes”, the President said.

“(We’ll be) transforming our farming enterprises from producers of primary raw material to producers of value added products ready for consumption,” he added.

The launch of the ten-year plan comes at a time when two out of every five Kenyans are exposed to the threat of going hungry. It also comes just four weeks after the high-powered launch of the East Africa Common Market, which is expected to open up the region for trade.

The growth of the agricultural sector is expected to hit the seven per cent mark by 2015 --the global deadline by which poverty and hunger should be eradicated.

At the launch, Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta committed Kenya to a continental plan that will now force Treasury to allocate 10 per cent of the national Budget to Agriculture. Currently, the 10 ministries under the Agriculture Sector, the minister said, receive 8 per cent of the national Budget.

According to the President, Mr Kenyatta’s signature to the plan --the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP)-- means that all the principles of the Maputo Declaration are now “fully domesticated".

Besides, Agriculture minister Sally Kosgei said the plan meant that farmers will now be helped in developing business plans for their specific ventures.

The European Union too has boosted this year’s Budget with Sh15 billion towards improving agriculture in the country, said Mr Dennis Plas’, a representative of the EU delegation in Nairobi.

The commitment also opens Kenya up for many grants and loans from the World Bank, not only to improve infrastructure, but also to boost farming technologies and practices.