Agriculture sector gets funding for food security, projects and climate
By Nicholas.Waitathu, June 16, 2023Key strategies will be fast-tracked to tame the effects of climate change, high food and farm inputs prices, mainly fertiliser, in the 2023/24 financial year.
Presenting the 2023/24 budget yesterday in parliament, National Treasury and Economic Planning cabinet secretary Njuguna Ndung’u said entirely the agriculture and food security will absorb Sh87.9 billion of the total budget.
Ndung’u said of total agriculture budgetary allocation, Sh49.9 billion will be allocated to finance identified projects geared towards enhancing high productivity. For the last three years, the agriculture sector grappled with severe drought and the vagaries of climate change leading starvations to for Kenyans.
Kenyans further have struggled with high food prices which contributed to a wider bracket of cost of living. Since October 2022 inflation rate has been reduced to eight per cent in May 2023 from a high of 9.6 per cent in October 2022.
The CS acknowledged that despite the challenges faced in the country for the last nine months, the Government in conjunction with other players has recorded great strides, for example, subsidising the cost of fertilisers.
So far, he said, the Government has registered five million farmers and issued 2.5 million e-vouchers to registered growers.
Through the e-voucher system fertiliser subsidy programme availed six million bags of 50kg.
As a result, Kenyan farmers have been able to plant at least 200,000 additional acres of food this year and used two million more kilogrammes of seeds.
This is expected to improve agricultural yields and granted duty waiver for the importation of key food products such as white maize, rice, yellow maize soya beans, soya bean meal, assorted protein concentrate and feed additives.
Under the Government’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) geared towards an economic turnaround and inclusive growth, Ndung’u said agricultural transformation and inclusive growth is one of the least five sectors envisaged to have the largest impact and linkages to the economy as well as on household welfare.