An ambitious agricultural reform package for Kenya is to be launched this Tuesday, signalling a new private-sector driven approach to the development of the Ksh727 billion ($9.32 billion) sector.

The new agricultural strategy is designed to drive Vision 2030 — the policy blueprint unveiled by the coalition government to ramp up economic growth to 10 per cent and turn Kenya into a middle-industrialised economy in 20 years.

The goal of the new Agri-cultural Sector Development Strategy 2010-2020 is to slash poverty by half in 10 years, grow agriculture by seven per cent and boost revenues in the sector by 25 per cent every year.

Its authors say it will rescue two million people from an annual cycle of starvation.

The strategy was authored by the 10 ministries involved in overseeing the agricultural sector through the Agricultural Sector Co-ordination Unit.

The ministries are Agriculture, Land, Livestock Development, Fisheries Development, Environment and Mineral Resources, Water Resources and Irrigation, Regional Development Authorities, Co-operative Development, Forestry and Wildlife, and Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Areas.

Adverse laws, such as the Co-operative Societies’ Act (2004), will be reviewed to remove hurdles to the strategy.

Parastatals involved in production, processing and marketing will be placed in private hands.

There will be huge investments in irrigation, value addition, increased production, human resources, affordable inputs and appropriate loans, besides fertiliser projects and marketing.

Other drivers of the new strategy will include a land-use master plan to protect critical water sources such as the Mau, the Cheranganis, Mt Elgon, the Aberdares and Mt Kenya; a computerised land management information system (called GIS) will be put in place to speed up land transactions and enhance security of tenure.

Technocrats are touting this as the most ambitious policy initiative by the Kenya government since Independence.

“The strategy is a deeper expression of Vision 2030. It is a meaningful and appropriate target,” said Dr Romano Kiome, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture.

His counterpart in Fisheries Development, Prof Micheni Japhet Ntiba, said the new policy is overdue.

“That’s how things should have been from the beginning. The new strategy will grow the sector in a co-ordinated, efficient and effective manner.”

He added that the agricultural sector will be able to feed an extra two million Kenyans every year and remove a similar number from poverty.

“Food security is not necessarily about production. All we need to do is ensure that we produce competitively and the resources are used in a sustainable manner,” he said.

Permanent Secretary for Livestock Development Ken Lusaka said: “Through the Agricultural Sector Development Strategy, we will work together from top down to the field to utilise each other’s expertise.” The long-serving administrator expects his sector to grow by an unprecedented 15 per cent in the next 10 years.

“It is a question of co-operation and sharing of resources for efficiency and effectiveness,” said Seno Nyakenyanya, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Co-operative Development and Marketing.