• Proposed agriculture bills include the Coffee Bill, Fibre Crops Development Authority Bill, Food Crops Development Bill, Horticulture Crops Authority Bill and the Miraa, Pyrethrum, and Industrial Crops Bill.
• CS Munya says the sub-sector Bills will provide for the reversion to the previous stand-alone statutory boards.
Image: Gerald mutethia
2020 has been a busy year for the agriculture sector with the introduction of five sub-sector Bills.
But the proposed reforms were not received well by some of the industry players.
Agriculture CS Peter Munya started with gazettement of the Tea Regulations in May. Immediately stakeholders in the tea sector were up in arms over the decision and went to court to challenge the regulations.
Before the dust settled, the CS released five agricultural Bills for public participation in October 15. The Bills will see the disbandment of the Agriculture and Food Authority.
They include the Coffee Bill, Fibre Crops Development Authority Bill, Food Crops Development Bill, Horticulture Crops Authority Bill and the Miraa, Pyrethrum, and Industrial Crops Bill.
Munya explained that reforms in the agricultural sector were started in 2003 with the formulation of the Economic Recovery Strategy for Employment and Wealth Creation and the ten-year Strategy for Revitalization of Agriculture (2004-2014).
He said in order to accelerate the growth and development of agriculture, the government prioritised the review and consolidation of the legal framework.
“This was in order to rationalise multiple, contradictory and overlapping legislation through enactment of a single generic all-encompassing legislation and replacement of all commodity specific legislation and regulations,” he said.
This culminated in the formulation of three Acts of Parliament including the Agriculture and Food Authority Act, 2013, Crops Act, 2013 and the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Act, 2013 (KALRO Act, 2013). These were assented to by retired President Mwai Kibaki in January 25, 2013.
He spoke on November 19 during a consultative meeting with the National Assembly Agriculture Committee, Senate and the Council of Governors on sensitization on the commodity specific draft Bills.
Munya said the reforms were aimed at enhancing productivity and incomes of farmers, improve the investment climate and efficiency of agribusiness and to develop agricultural crops as export crops to boost foreign exchange earnings.
The Agriculture and Food Authority was established in August 2014. Eight parastatals were succeeded by AFA. They include Coconut Development Authority, Kenya Sugar Board, Tea Board of Kenya, Coffee Board of Kenya, Horticultural Crops Development Authority, Pyrethrum Board of Kenya, Cotton Development Authority and Sisal Board of Kenya.
After that, AFA established the Food Crops Directorate, Horticultural Crops Directorate, Tea, Coffee, Sugar, Nuts and Oil Crops, Fibre Crops and Miraa, Pyrethrum and Other Industrial Crops directorates.
He said at the time of the merger, different crops were and still are at different stages of development, and that each of the major crops require interventions that are nuanced to its unique needs and challenges.
In addition, AFA became a super-regulator with the mandate to regulate all the 118 scheduled crops listed in the Crops Act.
“This omnibus structure became too huge and wide in scope and mandate to give focused attention to individual sub-sectors. The diversity of crops' coverage under the Crops Act generated many implementational difficulties. This contributed in making it difficult for the Ministry and AFA to develop the various regulations required to operationalize the Act,” he said.
The authority has therefore operated for a long time without most of the requisite regulations for the various sub-sectors, meaning that various value chains are inadequately regulated leading to loss of value, market limitations and sub-sector stagnation.
There was also the challenge of resistance from stakeholders arguing that most countries have dedicated special boards and ministries to focus on their crops that are key for their social-economic development.
“Since the merger, the authority has operated without a substantive board as each crop sub-sector desires to be adequately represented on the board. The lack of a board has slowed policy decisions and guidance, and delayed the streamlining of staff-related matters,” he said.
After the merger, all the crop levies were abolished that had once been funding crucial services and infrastructure development in sub-sectors such as sugar, tea and coffee.
The knock-on effect, the CS said, is that many programmes, especially research and development, infrastructure development and crop promotion in the various sub-sectors have stalled.
Munya said the sub-sector Bills will address these problems and provide for the reversion to the previous stand-alone statutory boards.
“Since the establishment of AFA six years ago, key value-chains such as coffee, tea, sugar and pyrethrum have not received adequate attention. The proposed specialised laws seek to introduce focus and clarity in the management of the various crop value-chains. Each of these bills provides a facilitative arena for the role that county governments will play in the governance of value chains to be actualised,” he said.
The Council of Governors and the Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture held a meeting in October 23 in Mombasa to deliberate on issues affecting the sector.
The leaders resolved to undertake a legal review of all laws in the agriculture sector to ensure conformity with the Constitution.
Civil society groups in the agriculture sector have raised concern that the Bills will be duplicating functions within the ministry and its parastatals.
Daniel Maingi, an expert in agriculture policies, said the Horticulture Crops Authority Bill proposes that the Horticulture Crops Development Authority carries out disease surveillance of horticulture crops. This is function is being done by the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services-KEPHIS.
“We should not be duplicating functions that are being carried out by other agencies or bodies within the same ministry. This will be a financial burden to the taxpayer,” he said.
Maingi also noted that Bills are creating other authorities and yet the objectives that led to the establishment of AFA have not been achieved.
“The Crop Act 2013 and AFA Act 2013 were rushed Bills that now seem almost impossible to implement, so it is important to ensure we fully engage all players in the sector for the good of the farmer,” he said.
Edited by Henry Makori