The liberalization process started in 1992 allowed for the free entrance of competitive products from abroad by eliminating price controls. In which way has that affected the agricultural sector?
The principle of liberalization is something we support and something we would like to pursue as a major economic policy decision for the government. Naturally, in the process, there are some sub-sectors in agriculture that have suffered. In liberalization, the efficiency levels would not allow them to compete effectively with producers of similar products in other countries. We were also liberalizing in a scenario where, in some countries subsidies were still in place for some of the commodities that we were opening up to. For instance, an area that has suffered quite a bit as a result of the liberalization is the Textile Industry. We have lost out in cotton production, which is a very important agricultural commodity. The other area that has suffered is the Oil Seed sector. We cannot compete with the producers of palm oil from Malaysia, and at the prices they are able to put into the market. Some of the other sectors that have seen some difficulties involve the Sugar Industry, primarily because prices in other countries, an all over the world are very low. Countries like Brazil flood the market with this commodity and our farmers cannot match that kind of price. Other commodities such as rice, wheat, barley etc., are some products that one has to handle very carefully when working out the liberalization program.
What have we tried to do in order to support the local farmer in this regard? Primarily, we have put in place a kind of duty or tariff structures to ensure that there is a sufficient level of protection to the local farmer. That has been the main thrust. In addition to that, we are trying to strengthen farmer's organizations, to be more efficient and to encourage more efficient farming practices that would enable them to have a more competitive status.
What effect is COMESA going to have on the agricultural sector?
In the whole context of these regional bodies, what I do know and what is practiced in other similar regional groupings, whether you are talking of the European Union or any other, is that each country would develop what you would call a negative list of commodities so that the dismantling or the harmonization of tariffs is done on a gradual basis, with a clear understanding that in a given area, certain sectors of that individual country's economy will be given some level of protection before you can fully open it up to total competition. This is a program that the countries have to build into the whole agreement.
Coffee and tea have always dominated the trade balance. What is the situation today?
Coffee and tea have actually been dominant export commodities. We are still grappling to be self-sufficient in sugar. Clearly, one of the things we would want to do is to try and encourage the agricultural sector is to add value to some of their commodities. I think that a few players in the coffee and tea industries are busy trying to develop such approaches and strategies, trying to improve their earnings.
The other area that we have now come out quite strongly is the horticultural sub-sector where in floriculture, for instance, we are rated among the top five in the world for products like cut roses. We have become a leading producer of such quality products, surpassing countries like Israel at the moment. Naturally, they are a competitor. One would want to look at them cautiously now. You would want to be cautious about any major competitor of a product that you also produce. We would want to keep a competitive edge; they would want to figure out what they ought to do in order to regain that status.
The agricultural sector relies substantially on good weather. Could you tell us how El Niño rains effected the agricultural production?
It is indeed true that we were affected to a great extent by the El Niño impact. As a ministry, we want to try and develop a policy position that would allow us to stop over dependence on rain fed agriculture. When it is too dry, we are hit and when we have excessive rains, we have a lot of water running to waste. That is exactly what happened with the El Niño scenario. Apart from the damage it caused, we also lost a lot of water resources which we could have conserved and then been able to harness subsequently. We are aggressively developing a program to review our irrigation strategy to facilitate a situation where we can capitalize on the use of this natural resource and then use it to open up new agricultural areas. We can use it to enhance production both in food crops and also stock production even cash crops etc.
What are the new Agricultural areas Kenya is looking at?
Basically right now just about 1/3
of our country is what you could call high
potential area. The rest, about 2/3
is either arid or semi-arid. When we say we
want to open up new areas, we mean that we would
like to get a substantial portion of that 2/3
into production. Currently, it is seasonal. If we
were able to have irrigation in those areas, have
dams, then we can see a major shift in our overall
agricultural production. |
What areas in the agricultural sector does the Ministry want to focus on and develop?
Ordinarily, in areas of agriculture, you would want to figure out what is best for the farmers. We want to revisit the oil seeds production. Here again, as a country, we shall be making public declarations of the policy direction. We are trying promote oil seed production in this country.
We are working out with our researchers to look at areas that can really be promoted. Tobacco is doing well and we believe we can expand tobacco production. We want to revisit the cotton area because we have noticed that countries like Tanzania are now doing better than us in cotton production, yet many years earlier, we were ahead of them. Clearly, there are several sub-sectors of agriculture that we need to revisit.
Then there is also livestock and poultry. We would like to develop both beef and dairy cattle. We have been working aggressively to give directions in terms of reproducing higher grade breed through artificial insemination so as to enhance livestock production and therefore increase our capacity to produce milk and related products.
Equally in the area of beef, we are working hard to support the farmers both in terms of improving the herd and also trying to encourage them in the process of meat processing and subsequently in entry into the export arena.
Can you tell us how the horticulture sector has evolved and why it has been so successful?
I would attribute it largely to the impetus of the private sector: the self-drive within that sub-sector. It is an area where the farmers over the years were not inhibited by government legislation in one way or the other. There was minimal government interference. That has given us the encouragement to give the private sector adequate support. Even in the other sub-sectors you can see them grow and improve on their production tremendously. Slowly these players have worked among themselves to ensure that they maintain quality standards because when it comes to the export of these products, you have to meet international standards otherwise you are out of business. The horticultural industry has guarded this very jealously and that becomes the reason for their success.
How are you dealing with the environmental balance?
We have had problems in dealing with these issues, partly because of the population pressure that our country has been facing, and partly because we may not have had previous clear regulations on environmental conservation and protection in some of the areas. We therefore have had difficulties in maintaining some of our forest resources, our water catchment areas, etc. However, there have been some major changes lately. We have developed a national environmental plan and a new environmental amendment bill. All these are likely to help us in ensuring that there is a proper balance between the economic activities and the environmental conservation.
What are your main plans for the future? What are your main concerns?
What I would say is that Agriculture being the dominant driving force within our economy, I would like to ensure that the farmers get sufficient policy support and direction. To achieve this, we want to establish a very strong link between farmers and the government in the development of such policy, depending on each sub-sector. We also realize that we cannot grow in isolation. We also want to talk to the other ministries or other sub-sectors of our economy to realize that, for agriculture to grow, we have to work hand in hand in harmony and in tandem so that roads are developed appropriately. We have to ensure that we work with the ministries responsible for water-catchment and of any other key utility that is vital, such as energy. There has to be sufficient linkage and policy among us so that we can move ahead. We also want to ensure that we give the farmers sufficient legal framework to achieve their objectives.
We want the farmer to be seen as part and parcel of the private sector. We would want to give them that enabling environment to forge ahead with minimal government interference, save for ensuring that quality standards are sustained and the infrastructure maintained..
Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers?
What I would say is that there is great potential in this country. There are a lot of opportunities for production and we can develop it further all the way into manufacturing and up to the export level. We have quite a reasonable back-up for an American investor and indeed there are some who have done well, one may just want to look at BAT (British American Tobacco). It's no longer British, I believe they have recently merged with Rothmans.
Apart from looking at Kenya as an entity, there are other regional bodies that are being developed: the COMESA angle and the East African Community angle. They have got a base for investment directly here and the neighboring countries. Kenya provides you with a very good springboard. |
