Deputy President Kithure Kindiki now says that the fight against poverty in Kenya is highly dependent on the revitalisation of key value chains in the agriculture sector.
Speaking on Monday when he received a technical briefing on progress made and the status of productivity of the priority agricultural value chains, Kindiki said agriculture consists of at least half of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He said this is the sector where almost 90 per cent of Kenyans derive their livelihoods from, and it is the reason the agriculture sector is at the heart of the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (Beta).
“Agriculture carries almost half, in terms of where the daily household incomes of citizens of Kenya come from. Somebody is either in agriculture, a keeper of livestock, within the fisheries and blue economy or is doing certain primary sector activity like mining.
“If you combine the number of people directly and indirectly engaged in the sectors I have mentioned, 90% of people in Kenya will fall in that bracket. This pillar of revitalising value chains, the largest carrier of values chains being agriculture, is at the heart of transforming Kenya especially from the bottom-up approach,” Kindiki said.
The Deputy President said that the revitalisation also involves improving the support infrastructure for the value chains.
He insisted that this modernisation and transformation would help Kenyans get more income.
“Then there is critical support infrastructure. Roads, electricity, ICT connectivity, water, markets for traders, SEZ for our industrialisation and job creation agenda and also the CAIPs. That is the support infrastructure that will help us transform the value chains in agriculture, livestock, fisheries and so forth.”
During the meeting, Kindiki said constant tracking of progress made in increasing productivity and creation of jobs and income opportunities in priority agricultural value chains is crucial to assuring that the targets set in the Kenya Kwanza Plan - The Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda 2022-2027 are met.
Present at the meeting were various heads of relevant Government departments and agencies.
