President William Ruto during the Mashujaa celebration has outlined food security measures saying his government will invest in drought mitigating projects in the coming years and pledged to make fertilizer more accessible to farmers.
Kenyans were faced with a lt of expectations as at this time Kenyans are facing tough economic times as prices of basic commodities have hiked. On the other side people suffering from prolonged drought making water and food to be scarce.
With over 29 counties facing drought and 11 in the alarming phase the country is now facing food shortage as this is caused by lack of rains for a long duration of time for over 3 years.
In the early days of the new government in office the administration rolled out fertilizer subsidy program that facilitate distribution of 1.4 million bags of fertilizer. The head of state now pledges that 6 million bags of fertilizer will be available and affordable before the onset of long rains
“We have also made arrangements to make another 6 million bags of various types of fertilizer available and affordable for the long rainy season. We have also asked the county government to work with us on the last miles delivery to center us close to farmers,” said president Ruto.
The president has promised to invest in drought mitigation projects stating they will construct over 100 dams to facilitate irrigation and 3 million acres of land will be put under irrigation.
“We are working on innovative investment mechanism through public and private partnership to construct at least 100 dams consequently it will be possible to progressively irrigate the 3 million acres already identified as irrigable land,” said president Ruto.
He adds that rice irrigation schemes already has irrigation mechanisms put in place that only needs improvements and that over 200 million acres land will be allocated for rice farming .
In livestock farming he has promised to restore stalled milk coolers and pledges to distribute more milk coolers after a short period of time.
“We have taken immediate steps to reinstate the stalled milk coolers programs and the distribution of 650 milk coolers will resume shortly,” said the president.
By Emmaculate Wamalwa
