Money Markets
Workers at the National Cereals and Produce Board depot in Eldoret depot
offload maize. Kenya produced 38.9 million bags of maize in 2013.
Photo/FILE
By John Gachiri, jgachiri@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
Low rainfall saw the agriculture sector growth in 2013 contract to 2.9 per cent from of 4.2 per cent a year earlier.
Poor weather in the grain-growing regions during
both long and short-rain periods saw output for most cereals drop— with
the exception of rice and wheat.
Kenya produced 38.9 million bags of maize in 2013,
down from 39.7 million a year earlier while beans production declined
to 6.1 million bags from 6.8 million bags over the same period.
Prices also declined, resulting in lower earnings for farmers.
“During the year, farmers received lower gross
prices for maize, coffee, tea, cotton and most fresh horticultural
products leading to a slight deterioration of the sector interms of
trade,” said the Economic Survey 2014.
The value of marketed products declined to Sh334.6 billion from Sh344.6 billion.
Overall the sector’s contribution to the general economy marginally increased to 25.3 per cent from 24.6 per cent.
Improvements in rice, milk, wheat and potato
production made up for low output from the traditional staples such as
maize and beans.
Production of Irish potatoes increased to 2.1
million tonnes from 1.5 million tonnes, fresh horticultural production
rose to 213,800 tonnes from 205,700 tonnes while processed milk output
increased to 523 million tonnes from 495.2 million.
The poor rainfall was cited as the reason the economy was performing below par.
“Depressed performance of the rains affected the
agriculture sector which is the single largest contributor to our GDP,”
said a presentation by Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Anne
Waiguru.
The economy grew by 4.7 per cent in 2013 from 4.6 per cent in 2012.
In 2012 the sector’s performance was helped by
high commodity prices on the international market that made up for low
yields. The government is however moving production to irrigation from
rain-fed agriculture.\
The National Irrigation Board is spearheading the
1.2 million Galana-Kulalu irrigation project at the Coast. The project
plans to allocate 500,000 acres for maize farming, 200,000 acres for
sugarcane production, 50,000 acres for fruit and 50,000 for
horticultural crops
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