Agricultural Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS): Towards Sustainable Agricultural Transformation And Food Security In Kenya 2019-2029.

This Agricultural Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy is a ten-year nationwide sectoral document aiming at developing and transforming the agricultural sector in order to achieve what established by Article 43 of the Constitution that states that Every person has the right to be free from hunger, and to have adequate food of acceptable quality”. To reach the overall goal it establishes 3 anchors for the first 5 years as follows (i) increase small-scale farmer, pastoralist and fisher-folk incomes; (ii) increase agricultural output and value add; and (iii) increase household food resilience.
To help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, the ASTGS proposed actions are (i) restructure governance and operations of the nationwide strategic food reserve to focus on serving a large number (about 4 million) of high-needs Kenyans, not on price stability by separating the price stability mandate, focusing the reserve on provision of food during emergencies, publishing new buy-sell policy guidelines and emergency trigger criteria, reducing lead time to get additional emergency funds; adding tonnes of legumes to the reserve, adjusting the target size to reflect the expected vulnerable population, introducing competitive bidding to allocate reserves to the private sector, and monitoring stocks digitally in real time; (ii) boost food resilience of farmers, pastoralists and fishing households in arid and semi-arid land regions through community co-created design, and more active coordination of development partner, government and private sector resources; and (iii) increase farmers productivity and shift production from subsistence to market-oriented output.
In order to make agriculture and fisheries more productive and sustainable, the Strategy envisages (i) the establishment of small and medium-sized storage facilities combined with best practices in post-harvest handling and storage to improve food safety and to extend shelf life of produce and reduce farm losses and post-harvest waste; (ii) unlocking of new large-scale private farms – each greater than 1,000 hectares – through competitive bidding, protected land ownership, and government provision of basic infrastructure (e.g., power, roads, and sustainable water supply for more than 60,000 hectares of irrigation); (iii) increasing water storage capacity to meet irrigation needs through the construction of new dams together with alternative water supply approaches; (iv) support to farmers with access to irrigation equipment suppliers, with the aim of increasing small-scale farmland under irrigation; (v) rainwater harvesting interventions, such as developing major rain/surface water harvesting projects; (vi) exploration of ways to boost water-use efficiency (e.g., using newer technologies) across all irrigation; (vii) tax breaks and subsidies for rainwater harvesting and small-scale pump systems; (viii) investment in monitoring, control and surveillance of capture fisheries, and promoting sustainable fish farming; (ix) information and guidance on sustainable use of resources (crops, livestock and fish); and (x) Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM).
Rural poverty reduction will be faced through the develop the agricultural sector, being the most important economic activity relied on by the poor in rural areas for their livelihood by (i) job creation in all related businesses; (ii) increasing agricultural production and transforming families’ livelihoods including mechanization providers in the private sector partnerships; and (iii) reduction of the distances for farmers who need to travel to collect their subsidized inputs by stimulating the private sector ability to supply agro-dealers.
To enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, main interventions are (i) increase access to markets via 1,000 SMEs and lowering the cost of inputs through a restructured subsidy system; (ii) create a new e-voucher system following a precise and detailed registration process so that farmers will be able to use it to buy a range of inputs at the agro-dealer, inclusive of seed, fertilizer, feed, mechanization and animal health products and services; (iii) improve equity in access and control of productive resources by all genders and groups who are most in need; (iv) establish a number of large-scale agro- and food processing hubs across the country through the Agro-Processing Accelerator, a one stop shop for agro-processors targeting both domestic and export markets; (v) involve the community in co-creating food resilience interventions; (vi) create linkages between research and productivity; (vii) develop irrigation systems where farmers engage in management (either alone or in some combination of non-government or government co-management); and (viii) stimulate local agricultural markets and businesses for crops, livestock and fish.
Increasing the resilience of livelihoods to disasters will be conducted through (i) addressing of the two main key food system risks that are (a) poor use of water, soil and land, and (b) crises arising from pests and diseases, climate and global price shocks; (ii) farmers' investment in sustainability for better farming methods, heed the climate change warning signs and be well prepared; and (iii) an early warning and response system for adverse environmental effects such as drought.
As for the Governance, execution and delivery steps are critical to the success of the transformation. The delivery unit is a government entity reporting to the President or Deputy President and is responsible for instituting a systematic approach to delivering results by (i) partnering with line ministries to track and follow up on performance, remove bottlenecks, and take corrective actions to address poor performance; (ii) enabling fast decision making by cutting through government bureaucracy; and (iii) creating transparency and mutual accountability for delivery by consolidating accurate and timely data and communicating fact-based outcomes to key decision makers.