State subsidies to continue as agriculture on the decline

Government's relief food for food for for drought victims under the subsidy programme. [Ali Abdi, Standard]

Agricultural growth in 2022 dipped by 1.9 per cent suppressing production in food and cash crops, the latest government data shows.

According to the Economic Survey 2023 released by the Kenya Bureau of National Statistics (KNBS), the sector shrunk by 1.9 per cent compared to 0.3 per cent in 2021, affecting production in tea, maize, milk and horticulture.

Coffee and sugarcane however recorded an increase.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung'u said in order to support the sector, the government will continue investing in irrigation to reduce dependency on rain-fed agriculture and increase the amount of land under crop production.

"The government will continue to subsidise agricultural inputs and particularly fertiliser to boost agriculture production and thereby reduce the cost of living," he said.

He added that there will also be partnerships with counties where each entity will have at least one agricultural value-addition processing plant and different forms of aggregators dependent on the pattern of production.

The drop in performance was attributed to unfavourable weather conditions associated with depressed rains.

"During the review period, production of key crops, including maize, potatoes, beans, cut flowers, vegetables, tea, wheat and milk declined," said the Cabinet Secretary during the release of the 2023 Economic Survey report prepared by KNBS.

The report shows that maize production declined to 34.3 million bags in 2022 compared to 36.7 million in 2021.

Beans production also dropped during the period to 5.7 million bags from 7.4 million. Potato production went down 1.8 million tonnes from 2.1 million, sorghum reduced to 1.3 million tonnes from 1.5 million while millet remained the same at 0.7 million tonnes.

Tea production decreased from 537,800 tonnes in 2021 to 535,000 tonnes in 2022. The drop in tea production, the report says, was a result of reduced rainfalls in tea-growing areas.

"Volume of marketed milk decreased from 801.9 million litres in 2021 to 754.3 million litres in 2022 largely due to drought that resulted to scarcity of fodder for livestock," the report says.

Beans production also dropped during the period to 5.7 million bags from 7.4 million. Potato production went down 1.8 million tonnes from 2.1 million, sorghum reduced to 1.3 million tonnes from 1.5 million while millet remained the same at 0.7 million tonnes.

Agricultural growth in the previous years before the 2021 and 2022 dip has been fluctuating. In 2018, the sector grew by 6.1 per cent followed by a drop of 3.3 to 2.8 per cent in 2019 and a recovery in 2020 of 5.2 per cent.