The Export and Import Bank of India has offered a loan facility of Sh10 billion to the Kenyan government to mechanize agriculture. According to the Cabinet Secretary of Agriculture Mwangi Kiunjuri, the funds will be used to buy tractors for small-scale farmers for hire and high-quality potato and pyrethrum seedlings.
The funds will be used to purchase and distribute 11 million high-yield potato seedlings and 26 million pyrethrum seedlings.
The loan facility is part of the government’s efforts to achieve the agenda on food security with small-scale farmers being encouraged to amalgamate their farms to benefit from economies of scale and enable easy mechanization.
“By making farms large through amalgamation, it becomes easy to use the technology that is adaptable today,” said the MP of Tigania West Kanyuithia Mutunga.
The government is also calling for companies to set up technology and innovation hubs at the grassroots to enable farmers to adopt modern farming practices.
