Kenya's agriculture needs overhaul to achieve untapped potential

By Kilan Patrick

NAIROBI, KENYA: That our agricultural sector is at crossroads is not in dispute. However, the newly appointed Agriculture Secretary needs to critically re-evaluate some of the policies currently being presented as panacea to the woes that beset the sector.

He will for instance realise that the last concrete blueprint for the sector was the Swynnerton Plan of 1954, and this is what delivered the impressive growth of 1960s and 70s.

The sector has since been on a “hit, miss and run” mode and this is the more reason we are food insecure after half a century of independence. 

There is no coherent, practical and strategic homegrown agricultural sector master plan.

Instead, the sector is busy implementing numerous foreign funded and directed programmes with local bureaucrats in the tow so long as they get their allowances and overseas study trips.

This further explains why most of the extension officers appear forever busy in seminars and workshops, while year-in-year out; the country can neither feed its people nor deliver on its agro-industrialisation and export objectives. 

I am particularly uncomfortable with the indication by the Cabinet Secretary that he will prioritise the hiring of more extension staff.  The lack of enough extension officers has for a long time been the excuse and not the real reason for non-performance at Kilimo and it could well be symptomatic of the “strategic thinking famine” amongst the bureaucrats in the department.

I would suggest the authorities first fully account for those already in employment – most actually spend their days in private ventures.  Nevertheless, there are also now new dynamics that make this a non-priority area for the Cabinet Secretary.

First, agricultural extension is a devolved function and should be left to the counties to handle based on their specific circumstances.

Secondly, it is now proven that if agriculture is sufficiently commercialised, the private sector can deliver low cost, effective and targeted extension services.

Third, in this era of information and technological advancement the traditional extension approaches have no justification and the ratios may not really matter.

Using the right tools, one extension staff can service thousands of farmers effectively. A major overhaul is needed to achieve our untapped potential.

Finally, our national priorities should tell us that we need more doctors and teachers not agricultural extension officers.