Two hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson said, “Agriculture is the noblest of all alchemy; for it turns earth, and even manure, into gold, conferring upon its cultivator the additional reward of health.”
Kenyan farmers today miss out on the alchemy, hyperbole and, unfortunately, gold but reforms are underway to turn their labours into piles of money,
Reforms in the agricultural sector were started in 2003 and although the process has been slow, progress has been made to increase yield, cut out middlemen and increase farmers’ income.
New policies have been formulated to support the sector’s growth.
President William Ruto is quoted as saying Government is reforming the agricultural sector to expand economic opportunities for the youth and support farmers to increase productivity.
“Our plan is to use agriculture to create wealth and expand job opportunities for the people,” he said.
He added the Government is investing in agro-processing and value addition, besides championing Guaranteed Minimum Returns to fetch farmers more money.
“We will eliminate brokers from our agricultural value chain using our county aggregation and industrial parks,” Ruto said.
Reforms are ongoing in the sugar, tea, coffee and dairy subsectors.
In October, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua assured coffee farmers the government will not relent in its quest to institute reforms in the cartel-ridden coffee subsector.
The DP said the government will, as a way of freeing farmers from the stranglehold of cartels, look for better markets for Kenyan coffee. The government has released Sh4 million to purchase coffee from farmers at higher prices.
He said farmers will be paid Sh80 per kilogramme as they wait for more. “We are looking for a direct market for coffee without going through the exploitative cartels,” Gachagua said.
Another ongoing coffee sector reform is the introduction of a direct settlement system (DSS) for expedited and transparent payment of coffee sales proceeds. DSS is provided for under the Capital Markets (Coffee Exchange) Regulations 2020.
The DP said reforms in the tea subsector have borne fruits and farmers have received higher bonuses.
“The tea reforms we agreed on in Kericho are beginning to bear fruit. Farmers have received higher bonuses this year because of the reforms,” he said.
Gachagua said reforms were also being implemented in the dairy sector and they will make sure a litre of milk does not fall below Sh50.
He assured farmers he will continue spearheading reforms in the coffee, tea, and milk subsectors, despite resistance from cartels.
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 Revitalisation of Agriculture (2004-2014).
The Ministry of Agriculture said to accelerate the growth and development of agriculture, the government prioritised the review and consolidation of the legal framework.
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 (KALRO) Act, 2013.
These became law on January 25, 2013.
Former Agriculture CS Peter Munya had said the reforms were aimed at enhancing the productivity and incomes of farmers and improving the investment climate and efficiency of agribusiness. Further, they would develop agricultural crops for export to boost foreign exchange earnings.
This followed the establishment of the Agriculture and Food Authority in August 2014.
Eight parastatals were succeeded, including the Tea Board of Kenya, Coffee Board of Kenya, Kenya Sugar Board, Coconut Development Authority, 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. AFA became a super-regulator with the mandate to regulate all the 118 scheduled crops listed in the Crops Act.
Munya was quoted in the media as saying this omnibus structure became too huge and wide in scope and mandate to give focused attention to individual subsectors.
The diversity of crops; coverage under the Crops Act generated many implementation difficulties. This makes it difficult for the Ministry and AFA to develop the regulations required to put the Act into operation.
Since the merger, the authority has operated without a substantive board for five and a half years. The authority functioned without directors from November 7, 2017, when the term of the interim board members lapsed.
However, on March 23, 2023, President Ruto set up a board and appointed Cornelly Serem as the chairperson for five years.
The lack of a board was blamed for slow policy decisions, stalling of research and development, infrastructure development and crop promotion in the various subsectors.
To address these challenges, the sub-sector reform Bills were introduced to focus and provide clarity in the management of crop value-chains.
In 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture launched agricultural reform Bills that were government-sponsored. The five Bills included the Coffee Bill 2020, Fibre Crops Development Authority Bill 2020, Food Crops Development Bill 2020 (roots and tuber crops such as potato and sweet potato), Horticulture Crops Authority Bill 2020, Miraa, Pyrethrum and Industrial Crops Bill 2020.
The agricultural reforms were aimed at ensuring that farmers increase their incomes