Kenyas' Budget at a Glance

Faced with the current challenges of rising food prices, the government is investing billions of shillings to expand and construct irrigation projects country wide and transform agriculture into business.

The government will spend 10.2 billion in financial year 2011/12 for expansion and construction of new irrigation projects countrywide including Ndhiwa. Completion of these projects will assure food security for Kenyans on sustainable basis. Kenya has a huge untapped potential for irrigation agriculture estimated at about 1.7 million Acres. To date only 20% of this has been utilized.

The economic stimulus programme irrigation projects successfully brought an additional 40,000 acres under rice cultivation in Bura and Mwea, maize in Hola.

To deal with food insecurity once and for all, the government will invest huge amounts of money to expand and initiate various irrigation projects spread throughout the country. Kshs 8.6 billion is a conditional transfer to National Irrigation Board to complete all the ongoing irrigation projects. The completion of the ongoing projects will increase will bring under irrigation a total of 36, 100 acres of agricultural land that will benefit about 560,000 households, while the new projects will bring under irrigation about 16,000 acres in the 2011/12 out of 70,000 acres we plan to complete in the medium term. This intervention will benefit about 300,000 Kenyans.

Towards transforming agriculture and livestock into business, the government has launched an Agribusiness and Livestock Development Fund, with an initial amount of Ksh 8.6 billion and Ksh. 400 million, respectively.

The Agribusiness Fund is a wider project of Ksh. 5 billion Impact Investment Fund under the Kenya Incentive Based Risk Sharing Agriculture Lending (KIRSAL) to be implemented over a four year period in order to leverage Kshs. 50 billion lending to agricultural sector and rural development targeting another 1.5 million small holder farmers and over 10,000 agribusinesses through out the country.

The operationalization of the project will empower and position the private sector players in the agricultural sector to deliver pro-poor economic growth, diversify our exports, expand employment, reduce poverty, and assure food security on lasting basis.