President William Ruto has unveiled an ambitious agricultural transformation plan aimed at turning Kenya’s farms into engines of job creation and wealth by shifting the country from exporting raw commodities to processing and branding more of its produce locally.
Speaking at the Agriculture Summit in Nairobi, President Ruto said Kenya must move from merely producing commodities to building a food economy in which farmers earn more, industries expand and young people gain new employment opportunities.
The President said Kenya currently processes only one in 10 agricultural exports, setting a target of increasing this to one in two.
“We will add value at home,” President Ruto said, outlining plans to brand Kenyan tea, roast Kenyan coffee, spin Kenyan cotton and process Kenyan leather.
He said exporting raw agricultural products denies Kenyans opportunities to benefit from jobs and industries that could be created locally.
“Every hide that leaves Kenya raw takes a Kenyan job with it,” he said, adding that the Government intends to retain both the product and the job in the country.
President Ruto said increased agricultural productivity would attract processors, with processing in turn creating jobs and generating wealth across the country.
According to his address, the Government also plans to improve farmers’ access to finance by creating integrated credit profiles incorporating repayment, registration and cooperative records.
This, he said, would enable farmers to progress from small loans to financing from the Agricultural Finance Corporation and commercial banks.
The President further urged farmers to treat their farms as businesses by testing their soil, using certified seed, keeping records and joining cooperatives.
He also challenged young Kenyans to embrace agriculture as a modern enterprise, saying opportunities exist throughout the value chain.
“If we are serious about jobs, we must process what we produce,” President Ruto said.
He said the Government would measure the success of its agricultural agenda not by the number of programmes launched, but by the number of farmers who become more productive, acres that become productive and viable businesses that are created.
The strategy places value addition at the centre of Kenya’s effort to lower the cost of living, create employment and increase household incomes by ensuring that more of the wealth generated from agriculture remains within the country.
