State plans to plant maize on 500,000 acres idle public land

The Department of Agriculture will fund major government corporations to put 500,000 acres of its idle land into corn production even as the government seeks to lease more undeveloped farm plots to the private sector.

Agriculture PS Harsama Kello said they have mapped land belonging to the Kenya Agricultural Livestock Research Organization, Kenya National Youth Service, Kenya Prisons and Agricultural Development Corporation to be put under cover crops.

Mr Kilo said plans are already underway to have the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) grant loans to these government agencies to enable them to grow maize and alleviate annual shortages.

“We have identified 500,000 acres that we will fund through the AFC to enable these government agencies to put their idle lands under food production,” he said.

This is the first time that the government has revealed that it will use parastatals to grow more food on idle land. The government of former President Uhuru Kenyatta issued a ministerial decree to lease the land to the private sector. PS said it would continue to lease the land to private investors and private companies able to cultivate vast plots of land.

The money that will be lent to these entities, Mr. Kilo said, will be used to mechanize farms and buy agricultural implements to ensure vast plots of land produce enough corn in the next two years.

He said that the process of these companies using idle lands and leasing them to private investors has begun.

Mr. Kenyatta’s government has approved a policy of large-scale commercial exploitation of public lands earmarked for agricultural production.

The policy, which was adopted last May, seeks to provide a framework for the use of idle land owned by public enterprises for large-scale commercial agricultural production.

Kenya is seeking a model in which public land is leased to private investors to produce food and cash crops that rely less on rain-fed agriculture in favor of irrigation.

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