Agriculture sector needs more funding
By Editorial.Team, February 14, 2023The Sh23 billion that the government has been asked to spend in the agricultural sector this Financial Year to improve the livelihoods of farmers is far from enough.
Thinkers at the Parliamentary Budget Office should have asked for more from the National Treasury since agriculture is the cornerstone of the economy.
That amount is not much, especially when viewed against the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, which recommends that countries spend at least 10 per cent of their national budgets on agriculture development to ease the continent’s food security troubles.
From a Sh3.6 trillion Budget, therefore, this would mean Kenya would need to allocate a minimum Sh360 billion towards agriculture. This would require radical thinking and an appreciation of agriculture’s role in the country’s growth.
However, all is not lost. Kenya can still achieve food self-sufficiency through planned allocation of funds for fertilizer, credit and extension services, all of which are key pillars in revitalising this key sector of the economy.
Already, Sh15 billion has been allocated for the expansion of the agricultural input subsidy programme. Despite such positive steps, the need to restructure the much-publicised e-voucher system cannot be gainsaid, since the efficiency and effectiveness of the supply of farm inputs must be restructured to allow transparency.
To support production efforts, farmers will get Sh7.2 billion as credit or working capital through well-managed farmer organisations or cooperatives while another Sh3 billion has been set aside as a subsidised loan product, specifically designed for the production of key food staples for the Strategic Food Reserve.
But to advise that counties allocate only Sh50 million annually towards investment in small-scale irrigation infrastructure in agricultural zones is not enough for several reasons.
First, the challenge is that farmers still bank on rain-fed farming yet the weather is no longer predictable. County and national governments must coordinate closely to ensure every village is in a position to do some sort of irrigation by maximising existing irrigation infrastructure for agricultural production and encouraging water harvesting technologies.