First Lady endorses UoN agriculture innovation centre

First Lady Racheal Ruto at a Science and Business Policy Forum event held alongside the ongoing UNEA on Tuesday at UNEP Headquarters, Gigiri, Nairobi.(Sila Otieno, Standard) First Lady Rachel Ruto has welcomed the establishment of the Kantaria Agricultural Technology and Innovation Centre (KATIC) at the University of Nairobi. Speaking during the launch of the centre built by Elgon Kenya Ltd at the university's Upper Kabete Campus, Mrs Ruto said the facility will help deepen research and innovation geared towards food security in the country. She said President William Ruto's Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) focuses on transforming agriculture to enhance livelihoods, ensure food security, and boost the overall economy. "The President believes that when we give our farmers the best tools, knowledge and technology, we secure not just our harvest, but our nation's future," she said. "Today we gather to open KATIC, a bold and visionary space born from the collaboration between the University of Nairobi and Elgon Kenya Ltd. This innovation centre is a seed of transformation, blending the wisdom of academia, the drive of enterprise, and the aspirations of a nation ready to reimagine agriculture." The First Lady said KATIC will be the answer - a place where knowledge meets the soil, where farmers test solutions, and where youth and women are empowered to turn ideas into lucrative ventures. "Through training, internships, and incubation programmes, KATIC will open new pathways for prosperity, productivity and entrepreneurship. What truly sets KATIC apart is its hub-and-spoke model. The hub, anchored here at the University, will drive research and innovation. The spokes across different institutions, Ministry of Agriculture centres, and community platforms will take those ideas to farmers, schools, and local markets." Graduates from this centre, she added, will not just leave with academic credentials but will be solution-driven professionals with hands-on experience in emerging technologies, agribusiness, and value chain development. "They will see opportunities where others see obstacles, and they will turn those opportunities into lasting change. The centre will showcase innovative, sustainable, and climate-smart kitchen gardening technologies." The First Lady also said the government remains committed to fostering an enabling environment through supportive policy, investment in infrastructure, and facilitation of finance to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture. She, however, said the government cannot do this alone, and needs continued support from its partners in the private sector, development agencies, and international collaborations. "Your contributions, whether through capital, expertise, or mentorship, are essential in bringing the vision of KATIC to life," she said. She urged the students and researchers present to use the centre's platform boldly to test their ideas, engage with industry, and build enterprises that will uplift communities, adding that the future of agriculture is not just about seeds and soil but about systems, solutions, and sustainability. Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs and Sports, Salim Mvurya, said the centre and the exhibitions on display are a step in the right direction. "And we are here because this centre, which we have just seen and Your Excellency you have opened, is very critical, and it is also going to help us in making sure that we inspire the youth in innovation and technology," said Mvurya. Mvurya said the government has given priority to the food security programme and President Ruto is at the forefront of ensuring that Kenya becomes food secure. However, he said in that journey they have found less participation from young people, and therefore going forward, if innovation is not embraced, agricultural progress is threatened. "The traditional agricultural ways of doing things are not attractive for young people. And being the Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Youth Economy and Sports, I want to confirm that the youth of our country are energetic, they are very progressive, and they have great potential," said Mvurya. He added: "However, going forward, we need to create an enabling environment for their participation in agricultural programmes, and therefore this centre and the exhibitions that we have seen are actually a step in the right direction, because we have seen a lot of smart solutions using drones and many other technologies that we should now bring on board in the agricultural sector so that we can bring the 15 million young people into food security." Bimal Kantaria, Managing Director of Elgon Kenya, said the opening of the centre is both a way of remembering his late father's legacy and the great work he did for the country, as well as giving University of Nairobi students the opportunity to come up with solutions for Kenya's food security problem and become entrepreneurs in the process. "My father, whom we have named the building after, was born in 1942 in Tigoni. He was a great philanthropist. He did a lot of projects in this country, and in association with Rasik Kantaria, they built Jalaram Medical, lots of schools, M.P. Shah Hospital, and, if you travel around the country, a number of institutions are named after our family," said Kantaria. "It was one of the tenets of our great-grandfather that whatever money you earn in your country, you must donate a bit of it back to the nation. So one of the reasons for donating this building was, of course, to say this is our contribution as a family to the country. This is our legacy for our father. We miss him a lot, obviously - he passed away three years ago - and there is not a day that I don't think about my father, the work he's done, and the legacy he left." He said the first drones college will be set up at the centre, alongside an Artificial Intelligence (AI) college, and welcomed more partnerships for training in other sectors of agriculture.

First Lady endorses UoN agriculture innovation centre

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