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Close to 60 per cent of farmers in the country source credit from salaries, loans and mobile money savings to finance their farming activities, a new report reveals.

The National Farmers Registration Report of 2023 and the Soil Testing Project Digital Soil Mapping report released last week by the Ministry of Agriculture confirmed that 17.9 per cent financed their farming from family savings and loan savings from credit cooperative societies (Saccos) among other sources.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Andrew Karanja noted that the report shared details of farmers in terms of education, age, how they obtain income from the produce and the various activities they engage in.

He said the initiative resulted in the registration of 6.45 million farmers, 17,280 agro-inputs dealers and 520 large, commercial and institutional farms.

“The data collection process utilised the Kenya Integrated Agriculture Management Information System (KIAMIS) which we have adopted as our common tool and platform for harmonising data collection, central database management and data sharing,” said Karanja.

The launch of the report, the CS said paves the way for the ministry to facilitate seamless data sharing with key stakeholders, adding: “As we share this data, especially the farmer’s data, we remain steadfast in upholding the highest standards of privacy and security.”

Karanja said the ministry is strictly adhering to the Data Governance Framework and the provision of the Data Protection Act 2019, as guided by the Office of Data Protection Commission. He added: “The report indicated that 39.4 per cent of the farmers obtained credit from salary or savings, 19.5 per cent of the farmers obtained mobile money savings and loans, 10.5 per cent of the farmers obtained credit from family and 7.4 per cent of the farmers obtained credit from co-operatives.”

Various sources

The report was compiled out of research carried out in 45 counties last year, The Government registered 6.4 million farmers with 70 per cent of them being between 18 years and 54 years.  This is contrary to information that various sources have provided in many forums that the average age of farmers in the country is 55 years.

The report explained that 26 per cent of the farmers were in the 18-34 years age bracket, 23 per cent (35-44 years), 21 per cent of the farmers were in the 45-54 years age bracket and only 15 per cent of the farmers are in 55-64 age bracket.

“This means that 70 per cent of the growers in the country are in the prime age of between 18 and 54 years. These are the majority who are in formal employment and if not are in active economic activities like businesses,” added Karanja.

To transform the agricultural sector, he explained, the ministry seeks to leverage data and digitalisation as key enablers of rapid growth and meaningful change.

“Data is not only important for evidence-based decisions but also critical for planning, prioritisation of resources allocation and the monitoring and evaluating of our initiatives’ impact and successes,” he advised.  Meru County according to the report recorded the highest number of farmers of 283, 636 while Isiolo County had the lowest number of growers at 36,190.