National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi while presenting the 2025/2026 national budget/ENOS TECHE
The government has allocated Sh47.6 billion to the agriculture sector in the 2025/2026 financial year—a reduction from the Sh54.6 billion allocated in the previous fiscal period.
This was announced by National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi while presenting his maiden budget under the Kenya Kwanza administration at Parliament Buildings in Nairobi on Thursday.
Despite the cut, Mbadi said the allocation will support key programmes aimed at strengthening food security, enhancing farmer productivity, and building climate resilience.
“The government has allocated Sh47.6 billion for various programmes under the sector despite the fact that agriculture is devolved,” Mbadi noted, reaffirming the national government’s commitment to supporting the sector through input financing, subsidies, and extension services.
“This will move the country from food deficit to food surplus, reduce reliance on food imports, and revamp export crops,” he added.
Among the top recipients in the agriculture budget is the National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (NAVCDP), which will receive Sh10.2 billion.
The Fertiliser Subsidy Programme, which maintained its Sh8 billion allocation from last year, will also continue playing a central role in reducing the cost of production for farmers.
Other major allocations include: Food Systems Resilience Project (Sh5.8 billion), Blue Economy Projects (Sh5.2 billion), Settlement of the Landless (Sh3.8 billion), Sugar Sector Reforms (Sh1.5 billion), De-risking, Inclusion and Value Enhancement of Pastoral Economies (Sh2.3 billion), Kenya Livestock Commercialization Programme (Sh1.6 billion) and Food Security and Crop Diversification Project (Sh1.2 billion).
Others are Processing and Registration of Title Deeds (Sh1.1 billion), Digitisation and Construction of Land Registries (Sh900 million), Small Scale Irrigation and Value Addition Project (Sh800 million) and Towards Ending Drought Emergency in Kenya project (Sh300 million).
Despite agriculture contributing 22.5 percent of Kenya’s GDP and directly supporting the livelihoods of millions, the sector’s allocation represents only about 3 percent of the national government’s total budget.
This remains significantly below the 10 percent benchmark set under the Malabo and Kampala Declarations, to which Kenya is a signatory.
Critics have long argued that the country’s food insecurity and underperformance in agricultural exports stem in part from underfunding.
