National and county Governments partner to improve food security

Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Kiraitu Murungi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

What you need to know:

  • The six-year project dubbed Small Scale Irrigation and Value Addition Project (SIVAP) is targeting 10,400 households from 11 counties
  • The country will also benefit from a grant of Sh2.3 billion from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme towards the project.
  • The contracts have been awarded to five irrigation schemes worth about Sh 1 billion.

The national government has partnered with counties to improve food security through a Sh 6.8 billion irrigation project that is poised to improve agriculture across the country.

The six-year project dubbed Small Scale Irrigation and Value Addition Project (SIVAP) is targeting 10,400 households from 11 counties, up from seven counties and 3,000 families previously.

Some 2,905 hectares in Meru, Murang’a, Kajiado, Bomet, Nyeri, Nyandarua, Machakos, Makueni, Kitui, Tana River and Tharaka Nithi will be placed under irrigation by the 2022.

Whereas the rest of the counties will benefit from one irrigation scheme, Tharaka-Nithi and Murang’a will receive three and two irrigation schemes, respectively worth Sh1.2 billion.

The project is co-financed by the government at Sh 690 million and the African Development Bank (AfDB) has granted Kenya a Sh 3.8 billion loan, which translated to 56 per cent of the project cost.

The country will also benefit from a grant of Sh2.3 billion from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme towards the project.

Irrigation schemes will be rehabilitated to increase agricultural productivity besides enhancing market access for crops and livestock, value addition and training of personnel.

Council of Governors chairman Peter Munya said contentious issues had been sorted out, paving the way for the implementation of the project.

“Over the last 50 years, Kenya has suffered chronic food insecurity due to a conglomeration of factors including prolonged drought spells, unreliable rainfall patterns and skyrocketing prices of food,” Mr Munya said.

He appealed to other state departments at the national level to emulate the Agriculture Ministry and drop what he described as a condescending attitude when dealing with counties on matters touching on the lives of people in the devolved units.

Lasting solution

Agriculture Principal Secretary, Dr Richard Lesiyampe said some resources will go direct to the counties and that the central government will monitor to ensure no money, is misappropriated.

“We are committed to ensure the project is implemented to its logical end,” Dr Lesiyampe said during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the two levels of government.

Already, he said, contracts have been awarded to five irrigation schemes worth about Sh 1 billion.

Makueni governor, Prof Kivutha Kibwana said the country must upscale irrigation as it can no longer rely on rain-fed agriculture to feed its population due to erratic weather patterns.

“We must move away from depending on rain fed agriculture, to irrigation. That is the solution to perennial food shortages,” Prof Kibwana said.