- The Ministry of Agriculture under a Land Commercialisation Initiative also targets private land of above 2,500 acres each with a view to increasing food security.
- Agriculture Principal Secretary Kello Harsama said there are huge chunks of land that have been lying idle for many years.
The government will soon start commercial use of idle land in the country.
Agriculture Principal Secretary Kello Harsama said there are huge chunks of land that have been lying idle for many years.
Most of this land is in the custody of institutions like the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation, Agricultural Development Corporation, Kenya Prisons, National Youth Service and others.
The government will utilise more than 500,000 acres of land belonging to these organisations for food production,” Harsama said.
The PS told the Star during an interview that this will be enabled by finances through the Agricultural Finance Corporation.
He said the government will lend money to these organisations for them to be able to cultivate that land to produce food for Kenyans.
“We have been having a serious shortage of maize in the country and in order to seal this gap, one of the options which has been realised is to ensure that we utilise these huge tracts of land owned by these organisations,” he said.
“This will be enabled through finance from AFC so that people are able to mechanise their cultivation, they are able to plant enough to cover all those acreages to ensure we have enough maize in the next two years to come,” the PS said.
The Ministry of Agriculture under a Land Commercialisation Initiative also targets private land of above 2,500 acres each with a view to increasing food and nutrition security.
While much of the land will be state-owned, the ministry confirmed that the new farm enterprises will be predominantly funded, owned and operated by the private sector.
The land commercialisation initiative will be implemented by a multi-agency technical committee established in 2021 to develop a roadmap for operationalisation of the same, and ensure coordination of various line ministries. The committee developed a draft LCI leasing Framework in September 2021.
Members of the committee are drawn from various government agencies including ministries of agriculture, water, National Treasury and lands.
In addition to the Attorney General, county governments, National Land Commission, National Irrigation Authority, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation and Council of Governors.
By last year, the committee had identified preliminary land parcels of 81,982 acres currently under the management of various government agencies.
For example, at Galana Kulalu under the exercise, 20,500 acres are available with irrigation facilities, while at Bura Irrigation Scheme, 12,000 acres are available for maize production and 3,000 additional acres can be available for irrigated production.
Other parcels of land targeted include 11,000 acres available for maize production at Hola Irrigation Scheme, Kibwezi branch of University of Nairobi (12,000 acres) are available for maize and legume production and 10,000 additional acres yet to be assessed for suitability.
Other institutions whose land has been identified include, Egerton University, Kerio Valley Development Authority, Coast Development Authority and Lake Basin Development Authority.
Moi University, county governments, National Youth Service, Kenya Railways and Prisons department are other institutions.
In the long run, the government plans to set up a project management office to ensure investors are well facilitated and supported before and during the investment process.
This will be done under the 10-year Agricultural Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy. This will help to unlock 50 large-scale farms of about 2,500 acres and above with about 150,000 acres under sustainable irrigation from existing infrastructure through available land parcels for agricultural purposes.
The PS said they have profiled those organisations we have mapped all, those areas we have already isolated 500 acres for commercial utilisation.
“So far we have mapped the idle land and we have profiled those organisations. Some of these land will be leased to individuals, corporations and organisations with the objective of maximum utilisation for food production,” the PS said.
-Edited by SKanyara