NAIROBI, Kenya, April 14 – The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM)has called for an urgent transformation of the agricultural sector.
This the association says is anchored towards meeting the sector’s raw materials and intermediate goods needs.
Speaking during a forum hosted by KAM at the Villa Rosa Kempinski in Westlands, Principal Secretary for State Department for Cooperatives Patrick Kilemi observed that Kenya is yet to harness opportunities that lie in the agricultural sector.
“Agriculture sits at the heart of the structure of our economy. When it thrives, the ripple effect is felt on all sectors”, he noted, adding that it is unfortunate that majority of Kenyan farmers practice smallholder farming pitting their produce against meeting the country’s food demands and putting food on their tables.
KAM chief executive officer Anthony Mwangi called for the need to urgently build resilient agro-based value chains to drive the manufacturing sector’s productivity and competitiveness.
“At the moment, we are facing challenges in two facets, agro processing and production. Farmers have a low understanding of what to grow and where to sell their produce “noted Mwangi.
Kenya relies heavily on agriculture and this contributes to 33 percent of the county’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP).
The sector also employs more than forty percent of the total population according to a report by USAID.
