File photo
NAIROBI: Kenya on Wednesday launched an 11.4-billion-U.S. dollar national agricultural initiative to transform the sector into a modern, high-tech and commercially viable industry.
The Kenya AgriConnect Compact (2025-2030), unveiled in Nairobi, seeks to create more than 2.4 million new and upgraded jobs by 2030.
Mutahi Kagwe, cabinet secretary for agriculture and livestock development, said the initiative redefines agriculture as a modern, tech-driven, climate-smart and investment-ready driver of inclusive economic growth, rather than a subsistence-based sector.
"The AgriConnect Compact is a deliberate, strategic and urgent framework to align public investment with private sector ambition, where public investment finances foundational systems and public goods, reducing risks and creating an enabling environment that attracts large-scale private capital," Kagwe said.
To finance the transition, Kagwe said the government will commit 3.8 billion dollars in public funding to de-risk the sector and leverage an additional 7.6 billion dollars in private investment.
According to Kagwe, the reforms aim to cut costly staple food imports such as rice and maize by 50 percent, while boosting high-value agricultural exports by 60 percent, in a bid to address the country's employment challenges.
