The third edition of the Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) Economic Forum has cited the agriculture sector as one of the major contributors to the countries GDP contributing about 27 per cent of the country’s GDP, from the sector which employs over 75 per cent of the country’s workforce and generates nearly half of the country’s export earnings.
According to the CBA chief Executive office, Jeremy Ngunze, the recent upswing in economic growth momentum to 6.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2018 is largely credited to the stronger upside from the agriculture sector.
‘’In spite of agriculture’s crucial role in economic development and poverty reduction, investments in the sector remain low and volatile. According to the Africa Union Maputo declarations on Agriculture and Food Security, governments committed to investing at least 10 per cent of their annual budgets to agriculture. This was to help unlock the 6.0 per cent growth potential for the sector.’’ Mr Ngunze said. Adding that even then, progress has been slow.
‘’In Kenya, budget allocation has remained low averaging about 4.0 per cent over the last decade. This has seen consistent underperformance in the sector’s GDP with growth averaging 3.9 per cent over the last 10 years. Lack of proper de-risking mechanisms has seen lending to the sector contract over the last two years.’’ He added.
The even as farmers continue to wait for payments amounting to Sh1.4 billion, for deliveries made to the cereals board between October 2017 and April 2018 with reports indicating that Unscrupulous traders benefited from a Sh1.9 billion payout at the expense of farmers. The said traders delivered imported maize from neighbouring countries to NCPB.
