Posted on May, 7, 2019 at 10:18 am
By Martin Mwita - MediaMa Network
National Treasury has allocated Sh10 million to the trouble-ridden Galana-Kulalu Irrigation development project in the next financial year starting July 1, even as questions abound over its viability and failure to meet expectations.
In total, Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich plans to spend Sh5.2 billion on some 70 irrigation projects countrywide during the 2019/20 fiscal year, as the elusive food security pillar remains a top government priority under the Big Four agenda.
Allocation of funds comes in the backdrop of dismal performance by the multi-billion-shilling Galana-Kulalu irrigation scheme which continues to be in the spotlight after it produced a paltry 22,000 bags of maize last year – during the financial year 2017 – valued at Sh35.2 million, on the then Sh1,600 per bag market price.
The Israeli-backed food security project had gobbled up Sh7.3 billion, a development that irked the Israeli government, casting heavy doubts on Kenya’s food security efforts.
On August 2014, National Irrigation Board (NIB) signed a Sh14.5 billion contract with Israeli firm, Green Arava Ltd to pilot the maize project at the scheme on 10,000 acres to enhance food security.
Speaking to Business Hub yesterday, an NIB official said the funds allocated in the current budget will go towards on-site infrastructure development.
“The budget allocated for Galana-Kulalu food security project is meant for rehabilitation of the irrigation infrastructure, specifically the intake works,” Project manager, Charles Muasya, said, adding that planting of maize is ongoing “to cover the entire farm progressively”.
“The model farm covers 10,000 acres. Irrigation infrastructure has been laid for up to about 5,100 acres. The entire farm will be planted progressively starting with 1,000 acres and then scaled up to cover the entire 5,100 acres,” he said.
The board expects to harvest about 31 bags per acre on average, which it says is similar to what was realised in the previous cropping seasons.
Kenya is partnering with Israel in the project which covers about one million acres of land in Kilifi and Tana River counties, where 10,000 acres is targeted for crop production. The government is also keen to produce cotton from the vast project.
“The government has also allocated 100,000 acres at the Galana-Kulalu Complex and the National Irrigation farm to National Youth Service to revive the cotton sector,” Rotich says in the 2019 Budget Policy Statement. The low maize output from Galana seems to have irked the Israeli government despite holding on to its commitment to the project.
Wrong signal
Recently, Ambassador Noah Gal Gendler said collapse of the project was sending wrong signal to the Israeli government and its business community, noting that it would be the first to fail in 70 years the Israeli government has been funding projects, mainly in Africa.
He went on to blame “cartels made up of maize importers and millers” for masterminding the failure of the project. At the start of the project, the Israeli government had opened a credit line of $80 million (Sh8.1 billion) for the country, of which $65 million (about Sh6.6 billion) was spent.
The project includes training of 250 Kenyans in Israel, under a knowledge and technology transfer programme, a group which was meant to take over the mega irrigation project once it was up and running.
Source: MediaMax Network