Smallholder farming is key to job creation

Workers in a farm. [File, Standard]

It is no secret that agriculture contributes the bulk of Kenya’s exports and that the European Union (EU) is the biggest export market for Kenyan horticultural products. But still there is enormous untapped potential for Kenyan products to access other high-value markets and for job creation in line with the Big Four agenda.

So how then do we match the export potential with job creation? The government’s new forward-looking strategy in the agricultural sector; ‘The Agriculture Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS)’, launched just a few months ago, is providing the answers, and the EU is helping to ensure these answers reach the different parts of Kenya.