CS Kagwe: Irrigation and large-scale farming key to ending Kenya’s drought-induced food crisis

 

As Kenya continues to grapple with recurrent droughts and rising food imports, the government has intensified its push for irrigation-led, large-scale agriculture, warning that rain-fed farming can no longer sustain a growing population under increasingly unpredictable climate conditions.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mutahi Kagwe said the country must urgently adopt scientific, technology-driven, and digital farming systems to increase productivity per acre, particularly in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs), which make up more than 80 per cent of Kenya’s land mass.

He highlighted the 1.8 million-acre Galana-Kulalu Food Security Project, a key component of this strategy, designated strictly for large-scale, mechanised, and irrigated farming.

“We are making it clear in public, Galana-Kulalu is strictly for large-scale farming. Subdivision makes mechanisation impossible and defeats the purpose of this project,” Kagwe said.

He noted that Kenya’s heavy dependence on food imports, including about 92 per cent of wheat, over 80 per cent of rice, and significant quantities of sugar, has been exacerbated by droughts that routinely disrupt domestic production.

Large-scale irrigated farming, he said, is the only viable way to stabilise food supply, reduce the import bill, and build long-term resilience.Under the Land Commercialization Initiative (LCI), the government is inviting serious local and international investors to participate in Galana-Kulalu, stressing that land allocation will be transparent, competitive, and free from favouritism.