Half-Day Experts Round table Tit Bits (Agriculture)

The above meeting was called by HBf to address the following ;

‘Irrigation Agriculture in Kenya: Impact of the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) and Long-Term Prospects for Food Security in an Era of Climate Change’

Date: November 16, 2010

Venue: Intercontinental Hotel-Nairobi

Welcoming Remarks

The meeting was called to order at 0930hrs by Dr. Axel Harneit-Sievers who is the Regional Director of Heinrich Boll Stiftung.

In his welcoming remarks Dr. Axel noted Kenya has a problem with food security which can tackled from a policy perspective.

This is where Heinrich Boll Stiftung (HBf) comes into the picture in an effort to enrich the discussion. Hence, HBf commissioned a study which was done by Kassim Were (lead Researcher) from Tegemeo Institut and had the participation of Alex Mwaniki from Ministry of Agriculture. This study was to inquire on the impact (if any) of the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) on Irrigation Agriculture in Kenya.

Kenya introduced ESP in 2009 and one of the things it was dealing with was providing support for Irrigation Projects. So this study provided a beautiful opportunity to look what has come out of it. Thus, the study looked at various schemes and the finding that were to be presented had gone through various rounds of reflection and HBf is looking forward to publish this study early next year.

Introductions

Mr. Kassim Were the Moderator of the session oversaw the introductions which also included mention of organizations represented at the forum. Thereafter, he gave the floor to Francis Z. Karin

Study Findings

Irrigation Agriculture in Kenya: Impact of ESP and Long-term Prospects for Food Security in an Era of Climate Change-Findings

• Study was conducted between September –October 2010
• Other researchers involved were Kevin and Alex Mwaniki
• Methodology used was review of available literature and field interviews

Some of the findings of this study are;

• Kenya’s food security is very weak
• Kenya land under irrigation is 1.8%
• Kenya’s Irrigation potential is 1,900,000 Ha

The Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) was launched in 2009 with a 22 Billion budget. This budget is higher that 14.4 Billion budget allocated to Ministry of Water.

Irrigation Agriculture Phase I spent Kshs 2 Billion. This was allocated as follows;

Institution                                  Percentage

Ministry of Agriculture             12%

National Youth Service            16%

TARDA                                   32%

National Irrigation Board          40%

Challenges faced within Irrigation Sector

• Archaic Irrigation Act-1966
• Undefined location of Irrigation leading to turf wars
• NIB-Management capacity, Political interference
• Inadequate funding
• Lack of Irrigation water
• Marketing Problems
• Poor access to credit, lack of capacity, participation by farmers
• Poor land tenure and land use system

Recommendations/Observations

Francis Z. Karim did observe that it was not within their mandate to give recommendations BUT observations drawn from this study are;

Short-term                                                                    Long-term

Institutional capacity                                 Policy issues-Explore possibilities of PPPS-     Smallholder model

Appropriate Storage & dry facilities         Separation of Mandates

Timely disbursement of funds

Questions and Answer Session

This session was moderated by Kassim Were and some of the questions raised were;

1. Outsource our irrigation
2. Involve youth in irrigation projects
3. There is a need to consider irrigation scheme in Bundalangi
4. Sampled areas in ASAL’s
5. The study restricted areas of irrigation. There is need to look at the potential of irrigation areas
6. Mechanizing and bringing smallholder farmers into irrigation
7. Basis of  calculating payback period on investment on irrigation (from study presentation)
8. Separate factors affecting irrigation (external & internal)
9. ESP was a short term cris management. Need to suggest long term solutions which should look into irrigation from a ‘business unusual’ perspective and also look into marketing final products of irrigation
10. Marketing & poor harvesting issues should be handled

The lead researcher Francis responded briefly to some of these questions before we had a tea break.

 Panel Discussion

After tea break a panel discussion was held. The panel consisted of;

• Francis Z. Karin, researcher
• Kevin Onyango, Research Assistant
• Representatives from mwea & Ahero Irrigation Schemes
• Justus Monda, Vice-Chair, Kenya Small-Scale Cereals Growers
• Ministry of Agriculture & water and Irrigation

The discussion mostly looked into the earlier queries raised.

Wrap-up

Dr. Axel thanked those present for an engaging and extremely informative half day deliberations.