Gov’t Sets Aside Ksh54B Budget For Emergency Locust Response
The National Treasury has allocated Ksh54.6 billion for agricultural transformation and inclusive growth in the fiscal year 2024/25.
The government seeks to improve agricultural productivity by preparing for drought and pest invasion.
To that end, the Ministry of Agriculture has been allocated Ksh2.5 billion as a reserve fund for the emergency locust response.
However, Ksh182 million has been allocated to the National Drought Emergency Fund.
Kenya has only experienced a locust invasion once in the past 70 years, during the 2019/2020 harvest season.
The invasion began in Northern Kenya and quickly spread to neighboring areas, affecting food production in 28 counties.
Despite the fact that there has been no reported case of locust invasion in the last four years, the Ministry of Agriculture continues to receive billions of dollars each fiscal year as part of emergency response efforts.
President William Ruto’s administration has also set aside Ksh10 billion for the fertiliser subsidy programme.
Other key areas that will benefit from the Ksh54.6 billion allocation include women and youth agriculture empowerment (Ksh2.4 billion), the National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (Ksh6.1 billion), and livestock resource management and development (Ksh12.3 billion).
The government will also spend Ksh11.3 billion on blue economy projects and Ksh3.7 billion to settle the landless.
Significant sums of money will be spent on the digitization and construction of land registries, as well as the processing and registration of title documents.
The Kenya Kwanza administration has identified agricultural transformation as one of the strategies for reducing reliance on imports and advancing the country toward food security.
Gov’t Sets Aside Ksh54B Budget For Emergency Locust Response
