Uhuru urges farmers to up output

President Uhuru Kenyatta during the inauguration ceremony of Bomet Governor Joyce Laboso at Bomet Green stadium on August 22,2017. Photo:Kipsang Joseph/Standard

President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged farmers to increase productivity to ward off rising competition for farm produce and manufactured goods from neighbouring countries.

“I challenge farmers and entrepreneurs to enhance their productivity in order to bring down the cost of production by making good use of the knowledge they have acquired,” he said in a speech read on his behalf by Public Service, Gender and Youth Affairs Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki during the official opening of the Mombasa Agricultural Society of Kenya Show yesterday.

He said for the country to realise its agro-industrialisation goals and to create employment and investment opportunities, it must adopt intermediate technologies in production.

“This can only be achieved by enhancing women and youth entrepreneurship in agriculture through capacity building.”