Food security is essential for a healthy, peaceful, and stable nation, and agriculture serves as a backbone in achieving this.

During this morning’s Food Security and Local Value Chains session at the French Week at Fairmont, The Norfolk Hotel, PS Jonathan Mueke highlighted the government’s efforts to enhance food security and local value chains, contributing to national food security.

Key strategies set out by President Ruto’s government to boost the country’s food and value chains include;

  • Improving physical infrastructure for instance aggregation and industrial parks in each county. The Aggregation centers will ensure all agricultural products are well stored and therefore saved from perishability.

 Speaking in Nyamira a few months ago, President William Ruto said the roll out of the program will broaden opportunities for Kenyans and boost economic growth.

  •  Providing milk coolers and cereal dryers. The government plans to distribute over 650 milk coolers to the dairy farmers through the cooperatives by the end of December 2023.

So far, about 300 have been distributed in various counties across the country. President Ruto promised dairy farmers that each ward would have their own coolers by the end of the year.

  • Leveraging IT, enhancing legal frameworks for value chain governance.  
  • Conducting laboratory tests to enhance food safety.

Mr. Kimote, the NCBP Managing Director recently announced that the board has set up laboratories in depots in Meru, Kitale, Eldoret, Nakuru, and Machakos to enable farmers and millers across the nation to access low-cost testing aflatoxin.

  • Addressing post-harvest losses.

The government recently released 2 Billion shillings for the purchase of dryers to ensure farmers can now dry their maize and protect them from post-harvest losses especially in the ongoing heavy rains.