The National Irrigation Board is ready to hand over 5,500 acres of the Galana Kulalu project to the Agricultural Development Corporation for commercial production.
This comes as many Kenyans wonder what became of the Galana Kulalu project, while they dig deeper into their pockets to buy food.
Barely two weeks after the end of the maize subsidy programme, the price of a 2kg packet of maize flour has increased to Sh139 from Sh90.
The Galana Kulalu project is part of the Jubilee government’s manifesto on ensuring food security, one of the four pillars of President Uhuru Kenyatta agenda.
The Galana project was supposed to put one million acres under irrigation by 2017. Only, 5,500 acres of the model farm have been completed and are ready for leasing to the private sector.
Charles Muasya, the NIB acting chief engineer for planning and design, yesterday said they will hand over 5,500 acres by the end of this month. Another 4,500 acres will be turned over by March.
“This will total 10,000 acres of the farm, designed to demonstrate modern irrigation technologies before the entire project is rolled out,” he said.
Muasya said 89 per cent of the Sh7.2 billion of the project is complete. The remaining 4,500 acres will be ready by March after installation of five pumps. This follows numerous meetings this week with officials from the NIB, the Agriculture ministry and the ADC.
Muasya said the Board will revoke an advert published in a daily on December 4, seeking private investors to undertake production. This will now be the mandate of the ADC. “Going forward, the NIB will only concentrate on providing infrastructure while the ADC will undertake commercial production as under the agreed mandate,” Muasya said. He spoke to the Star at the NIB headquarters in Nairobi.
NIB general manager Gitonga Mugambi said the work on the additional 10,000 acres will start in August this year and end by 2020.
“In four years, we should have completed 400,000 acres with 75 per cent of the production being on food security crops that include maize, rice, potatoes and legumes,” he said.
He said by 2021, they will have finished laying down infrastructure and handed over 100,000 acres to the ADC.
By 2022, they will have laid infrastructure for another 100,000 acres and the balance by 2023.
Mugambi said they are currently procuring contractors and seeking funds to implement the 400,000 acres.
“The procurement process is expected to be completed by April and should commence in September this year and completed in December 2021,” he said.