500,000 Acres of Idle Public Land to be Used for Maize Cultivation by the State
The Ministry of Agriculture plans to provide funding to important State-owned companies to cultivate maize on 500,000 acres of unused land.
Meanwhile, the government aims to lease additional portions of unused farms to private companies. According to Agriculture PS Harsama Kello, land owned by various organizations, including the Kenya Agriculture Livestock Research Organisation, the Kenya National Youth Service, the Kenya Prisons, and the Agriculture Development Corporation, has been identified for crop production.
To tackle yearly shortages, Mr. Kello also revealed that the Agriculture Finance Corporation (AFC) would lend money to these State-owned institutions to enable them to cultivate maize.
“We have identified 500,000 acres that we are going to finance through AFC to enable these government agencies to put their idle land under food production,” he said.
For the first time, the government has disclosed its intention to employ parastatals to cultivate unused land to increase food production. During the tenure of former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government, the Cabinet passed a resolution to lease the land to private companies.
The Agriculture PS, however, stated that the government would still lease land to private investors, especially those capable of cultivating vast tracts of land.
Mr. Kello revealed that the funds given to these entities would be utilized to mechanize the farms and purchase farming equipment, ensuring that vast areas of land produce enough maize within two years.
According to Mr. Kello, the procedure for parastatals to utilize idle land and for private investors to lease the same had begun. The policy on large-scale commercialization of public land for agricultural production was approved by Mr. Kenyatta’s government.
The policy, which was adopted in May last year, aims to establish a structure for utilizing unused land belonging to public institutions for large-scale commercial agriculture.
Kenya hopes to develop a model in which public land is leased to private investors for food and cash crop production that is less reliant on rain-fed agriculture and more dependent on irrigation.
500,000 Acres of Idle Public Land to be Used for Maize Cultivation by the State