Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has warned development partners against imposing generic agricultural projects on Kenya, saying the country will reject initiatives not locally designed or aligned to its needs.
Kagwe who spoke at the National and County Governments consultative meeting with the World Bank Group said that Kenya’s agricultural priorities must be internally structured and funded based on local realities, not external templates.
“We are not the same. Our needs are different. We want to be initiators and co-designers. We will reject projects that we have not tailored,” the CS said.
The meeting brought together senior national and county leaders, including governors, CECs, The National Treasury and Economic Planning and the World Bank country team.
He urged counties to properly structure agricultural programs and link them to national digital platforms Kenya Agriculture Digital Information Centre (KADIC) and Kenya Integrated Agricultural Management Information System (KIAMIS) to improve coordination, transparency and impact.
Currently, 7.2 million farmers are registered on KIAMIS, with 5.5M receiving digital advisory services on agronomy, weather and markets.
The meeting reviewed progress of two World Bank funded programs National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (Navcdp) and Food Systems Resilience Programs (FSRP) worth KSh 49.5 billion.
