Kenya enhances adequate financing of Agricultural sector

Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa making a presentation during the Sustainable and Inclusive Agrifood Systems and food crisis prevention event in New York. [Courtesy, Governors Office]

The government is rolling out mitigation measures to ensure there's sustainable financing in the Agricultural sector.

The agriculture sector contributes to about 70 per cent of employment opportunities in the rural sector, with nearly 8.5 million Kenyans.

The revelations were made on the sidelines of an international event on financing for Sustainable and inclusive agrifood systems and food crisis prevention.

The event held in New York was convened by Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) and co-organized by the Government of Brazil and the Government of Pakistan.

Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa, who represented national and County governments, noted the important strides made to ensure there's financial inclusion even for those at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Barasa was accompanied by Vihiga Governor Wilber Ottichilo, Patrick Ole Ntutu (Narok), Paul Otuoma (Busia) along with Beatrice Akinyi (Senate), Martha Wangari (Gilgil MP) and Innocent Mugabe (Likuyani MP).

"The Government of Kenya is strengthening value addition as a crucial pathway for climate change adaptation, bringing down producer level wastage and risk and enhancing overall value," Barasa said.

He added that the government is implementing an agriculture growth strategy which mainly focuses on aggregation, commercialization and marketing participation.

This, he said will also enhance productivity through improved access to quality inputs and extension services.

"We have a focused approach to value chain development and agriculture commercialization to create new jobs," Barasa said.

The governor said that some of the value chains include innovation hubs, aggregation and marketing centers as well as industrial parks across the 47 Counties.

Further, Barasa Kenyan government has prioritized women who are faced with a myriad of challenges during production, aggregation and marketing.

"Specific programmes targeting women including the Women Enterprise Fund, 30 per cent procurement opportunities for Women have been put in place," he said.

Barasa also represented the government of Kenya during the eleventh session of the UN high level political forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF2023).

The county boss added that the County government has put across measures to recover from the Covid 19 pandemic which caused a two year hiatus in 2020.

Being a devolved function, the healthcare sector witnessed a paradigm shift in a quest to expand access to medical services in times of need.

"This has been made possible through installing new and more medical equipment, recruiting additional healthcare workers, training of healthcare labour force on COVID-19 mitigation and prevention measures," Barasa said.

The sub-national governments also developed the COVID-19 Socio-economic Re-Engineering and Recovery Strategy 2020-2023 for each county.

The strategy embeds the principles of response, recovery and thriving.

While the National government developed an SDGs Recovery and Acceleration Strategy (2022 - 2030) to stimulate economic recovery and accelerate progress in the implementation of SDGs.