New lobby to raise Kenya's agriculture growth unveiled

Science, Research, and Innovation PS Shaukat Abdulrazak. [File, Standard] 

Kenya has launched the World Agriculture Forum (WAF) Country Council to accelerate the transformation of its agriculture sector.

The new lobby aims to boost productivity, strengthen climate resilience and connect global innovation with local farming systems. 

Officials say this marks a significant step in positioning the country as a continental leader in agricultural innovation powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and bioengineering.

The launch, under the theme The Convergence of Intelligence: Strategic Investments in AI and Bioengineering for a Resilient Agricultural Future brought together senior government officials, global agriculture leaders, researchers, investors and agribusiness executives to explore how converging technologies can unlock productivity, resilience and inclusive growth across Kenya’s food systems. 

With the effects of climate change such as floods and prolonged droughts, which have been disrupting planting seasons, trade barriers constricting supply chains and a rapidly growing population demanding more food, Kenya faces an urgent need to scale both the quality and quantity of agricultural production.

The WAF Kenya Country Council has been launched to bridge the gap between policy ambition and on-farm reality, creating integrated investment pipelines that pair digital intelligence with biological innovation.

Principal Secretary in the State Department for Science, Research and Innovation in the Prime Cabinet Secretary’s Office Prof Shaukat Abdulrazak, on behalf of Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, underscored the strategic importance of the initiative. He said the launch is more than inaugurating an additional institution. 

“As we formally launch the Kenya Country Council of the World Agriculture Forum, we are doing more than inaugurating another institution. We are declaring that Kenya is ready to lead the ‘Convergence Decade’. The future lies in the synergy between digital intelligence and biological intelligence. AI can tell a farmer when to plant, but bioengineering gives that farmer the seed that will survive regardless of the season,” he said. 

ILRI Director General Prof Appolinaire Djikeng highlighted the importance of sustained collaboration in transforming agriculture.