For the 2024/25 Financial Year budget, the National Treasury has set aside Ksh54.6 billion for agricultural transformation and inclusive growth.
One of the ways the government seeks to improve agricultural productivity is through preparedness against drought and pest invasion.
To that end, the Ministry of Agriculture has been allocated Ksh2.5 billion which will serve as reserve cash for the emergency locust response.
On the other hand, the National Drought Emergency Fund has been allocated Ksh182 million.
Kenya has only experienced a locust invasion once in the last 70 years which happened in the 2019/2020 harvest season.
The invasion started in Northern Kenya and quickly spread to adjoining lands affecting food productivity in 28 counties.
Despite there being no reported case of locust invasion in the last four years, the Ministry of Agriculture has continued receiving billions every financial year as part of emergency response.
President William Ruto’s administration has also set aside Ksh10 billion as part of the fertiliser subsidy programme.
Other key areas that will receive part of the Ksh54.6 billion allocation include; women and youth agriculture empowerment (Ksh2.4 billion), National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (Ksh6.1 billion) and Livestock Resource Management and Development (Ksh12.3 billion).
The government will also spend Ksh11.3 billion on blue economy projects and Ksh3.7 billion on settling the landless.
Significant sums of money will be spent on the digitisation and construction of land registries as well as the processing and registration of title deeds.
The Kenya Kwanza administration has identified agricultural transformation as one of the ways to reduce dependency on imports and lead the country towards food security.
