Agriculture ministry establishes insurance scheme to cushion farmers

The Ministry of Agriculture has started an agricultural insurance scheme to cushion farmers against risks and increase the resilience of pastoralists and rural communities.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Felix Koskei said the scheme is one of its elaborate seven key priority areas in the realisation of the Vision 2030 - a national development blue print.

Koskei underscored the sector’s role as key economic driver in achieving an annual growth rate of 10 per cent and sustaining such growth. He revealed that the ministry is also working to ease access to agricultural inputs and credit, aimed at ensuring availability of quality inputs and affordable credit to farmers.

Koskei said the intervention is expected to reduce cost of production and increase farmers’ income.

“We are also establishing an Irrigated Agriculture Programme by investing in water harvesting and irrigation technologies to increase food production, especially horticultural production,” he said during the launch of a tea Factory in Nandi County yesterday.

This will be closely backed by investing in water harvesting and irrigation technologies to increase food production and diversify agricultural production. “Not to mention the establishment of Livestock Disease-free Zone to facilitate access of Kenyan meat, leather sector and its products to local, regional and international markets. Another area is fisheries development which will be done by increasing the productivity of natural fish stocks in the lakes and dams,” Koskei stated.

This, he observed, will be done through stocking, restocking and restoring the stocks. Other methods will include instituting conservation and adopting aquaculture as an alternative to reducing fishing pressure from marine and inland water systems. These will be realised through institutional reforms via facilitation and creation of institutions that enable the State deliver on its mandate. “The institutions are at the same time expected to support the county government in contributing towards attainment of national food security,” he stressed.

The ministry has already initiated a number of projects and programmes such as the Holder Marketing Project,  the Kenya Agricultural and Agribusiness Productivity Programme and the East Africa Agricultural Productivity Project to improve food security and ensure equitable income and employment. These will support health and nutrition interventions, enhance research, training and information dissemination.

This is in addition to enhancing drought resilience, improving sustainable livelihoods of the communities in the arid and semi-arid lands and facilitating increased sharing of agricultural knowledge and technology among the farmers.