Posted on June, 3, 2024 at 09:45 am
Kenyan President William Ruto on Saturday vowed to invest more resources in expanding agriculture to improve food security.
Speaking at the celebrations marking 61 years since Kenya attained internal self-rule from Britain (Madaraka Day), Ruto enumerated his administration’s achievements in the agricultural sector and promised more development projects across the country.
He noted that investment in agriculture remains key to expanding the economy’s most important value chain and ensuring that there is enough food to feed citizens.
“Agriculture’s direct contribution to our GDP (gross domestic product) is 25 percent, while its indirect support to other pillars of the economy, such as manufacturing, boosts GDP by another 27 percent,” he told tens of thousands of people in Bungoma County, western Kenya.
Kenya gained internal self-rule from British colonial rule on June 1, 1963, when it was allowed to form its first internal self-government with Jomo Kenyatta as the first president. On Dec. 12, 1963, Kenya declared its independence after being a British colony since 1920.
This year’s Madaraka Day theme is “Agriculture and Food Security,” and the president pointed out that under the bottom-up economic transformation agenda, the country will reduce hunger, fight poverty and improve the health of Kenyans.
Ruto said reforms have been carried out in coffee and tea, among other sectors, to ensure that farmers get good returns on their investment and improve the country’s economy.
The Kenyan leader said the government will continue to promote reforestation and restoration of degraded landscapes and mobilize Kenyans to plant trees to restore the environment.
“We have made progress in fulfilling our commitment to build 100 dams and 1,000 small dams in different parts of the country to facilitate sustainable water use and increase irrigated land by 500,000 acres by 2026,” he added.
Source: Capital FM