Kenya: Farmers Income Has Gone Up in All Sectors – DP Kindiki
Nairobi — Deputy President Kithure Kindiki says the transformation of key agriculture sectors in order to increase productivity, improve earnings and spur economic growth is on course as various comprehensive interventions are rolled out.
The DP said Agriculture remains the nation’s economic mainstay contributing significantly to the income of millions of Kenyans relying on it and is at the centre of the government’s transformation plan.
Presently, he added, the government is focused on sustaining high production and better incomes from maize and sugarcane as well as improving quality and prices of rice, tea and coffee.
These value chains, among others, are key to the nation’s socio-economic growth and are at the centre of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.
“All the value chains in Agriculture hold the key to the future of our country. They hold the key to impacting household incomes of so many people. They hold the key to our quest towards manufacturing and industrialization. We must report progress on each of the value chains as we enter the second half of our term,” Kindiki stated.
The Deputy President spoke on Wednesday when he received progress reports on the streamlining of the various agriculture chains at the Official Residence in Karen, Nairobi.
In the maize sub-sector, production has risen over the last two years and a deficit of 10 million bags inherited from the previous administration has been dealt with.
Rice is also under the government’s radar with efforts expended on improving production and prices which have remained a challenge to most farmers.
“We must ensure the country is self-sufficient in its rice production as a food security and economic empowerment measure. It is possible to produce enough rice and create more value to farmers,” the DP noted.
The streamlining of the sugar industry has picked pace with various interventions meant to revive factories that have been on the verge of collapse due to mismanagement.
Following the successful revival of Mumias Sugar Factory, the government has entered into public-private partnerships for the lease of Muhoroni, Chemelil, Sony and Nzoia factories to revamp them and improve pay to farmers.
The target is to increase sugarcane production, modernize processing, pay workers on time, and introduce incentives like bonus payments in replicating what Mumias farmers received last year for the first time ever since sugar growing was introduced in Kenya in the 1920s.
“We have done commendable work in sugar but it is still work in progress. We successfully experimented with Mumias and it has worked. We are replicating the same with the others.
Deliberate interventions in the sub-sector have given us indications that we can be self-sufficient and even start importing sugar as part of our manifesto commitments,” he assured.
Coffee farmers have this year received the highest pay in over 30 years following comprehensive reforms rolled out by the government over the last two years.
With the crop being a lifeline to thousands of farmers, the DP said it is possible to push the pay further up from what was achieved this year.
“The world trade for coffee is only second to oil. We grow quality coffee and our potential is huge. We are doing well but we can do better We have made progress in modernizing coffee production and marketing but there is still some heavy lifting to be done,” he indicated.
Together with the tea industry, the government is now focusing on implementation of more measures in a bid to raise income for farmers.
“We have taken measures in the coming budget to remove VAT on coffee packaging materials. If we do more value addition and concentrate on specialty coffee and tea, be more aggressive on marketing, modernization of factories and subsidizing farm input like fertilizer we will do better,” he said.
By Capital FM.
