AGRA new plan targets to support farmers and boost food security

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has launched its Kenya Strategy to support the country's efforts to enhance food security and build the resilience of smallholder farmers.

The five-year strategy aligns with Kenya's Vision 2030 blueprint for long-term development, which aims to transform the country into a middle-income economy. The strategy builds on the achievements and lessons from Agra 2.0 strategy.

Speaking during the unveiling of the new strategy in Nairobi, AGRA President Dr Agnes Kalibata noted that the strategy focuses on addressing key challenges facing the agricultural sector, such as the need to assess the impact of climate change and its shocks, prioritise disease monitoring, and focus on building markets to pull sustainable farming practices.

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"Our delivery model will continue to scale and leverage proven approaches to deliver a competitive and inclusive agricultural transformation in Kenya. We are committed to working closely with smallholder farmers, the private sector, and other stakeholders to enhance food security and build the resilience of the agricultural sector," says Dr Kalibata.

In Kenya, the agricultural sector has traditionally, played a crucial role in ensuring food security, job creation, income generation, foreign exchange earnings and linkages with other sectors of the economy.

Over the years, successive governments have prioritised agriculture through digitising the subsidies programme and loan commercialisation.

Despite these efforts, the sector remains characterised by weak vertical integration as a result of unpredictable weather patterns and recurrence of insecurity particularly in the ASALs. Some challenges facing the sector remain threats to national economic progress.

"The government is keen on strengthening longer-term resilience and increasing agricultural capacity investments to boost domestic food production. Public-private partnerships have the potential to revolutionize food security in Kenya by combining the strengths of both sectors to create sustainable solutions that benefit the entire population," says Mithika Linturi CS for Agriculture and Livestock Development.

In recognition of the wide-ranging nature and complexity of the challenges facing smallholder farmers in Africa, AGRA sees strategic partnerships as a key pillar of its strategy.

These partnerships support alignment between government priorities and private sector interests, for improving impact at the smallholder farmer level and for mobilising private sector investment to scale. As such, The Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA) was launched in 2017 as a vehicle for mobilising strategic partnerships for transforming agricultural systems.