Phase two of the 10,000-acre model farm at the Galana Kulalu food security project will be completed in January next year.
Water and Irrigation Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki said the project is at 72 per cent completion.
Speaking during an inspection tour of the ongoing works, Sicily said the project was to be completed by July this year but was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The remaining 28 per cent includes the installation of centre pivots and piping works for the water systems.
The remaining centre pivots are currently being shipped to the county.
She said after completion, the government will commercialise the farm through privatisation.
Sicily said the government was striving to put more acres of land under irrigation from the current 540,000 acres to one million acres as envisioned in Vision 2030.
The investor who will win the bid will be at liberty to choose the crops to grow. However, the government will avail the statistics on the crops that do better in the area.
Besides maize, the model farm has BT cotton, pawpaw, passion plantations, citrus orchards, coconut trees, sugar cane and vegetables.
Devolution Chief Administrative Secretary Gideon Mung’aro said maize harvested from the farm will be used to cushion residents of Kilifi and Tana River county against hunger pangs.
Mung’aro said the government cannot afford to let people starve yet there is a good harvest in the farm.
“The government has a lot of dry maize at the Galana Kulalu food security project. Right now we are giving you rice and beans but very soon it will be maize,” Mung’aro said.
Mung’aro has been touring the two counties to distribute relief food.
CS Sicily said the government is waiting for the National Cereals and Produce Board to start rolling out the distribution of maize from the farm.
“NCPB is the one to purchase the maize and I know they are working on that. This farm is here and it must benefit the people around,” she said.
