Tharaka Nithi County Government has allocated some Sh.260.4 million for agriculture development’s crop production sector in this year’s budget.
According to the County Executive for Finance and Economic Planning, Ms. Dorothy Naivasha, since food security was one of the national government’s big four agenda, the county aims to ensure availability of food across the county and surplus for sale to generate household incomes by availing sufficient funds to the agriculture sector.
“Agriculture is a fully devolved function hence the contribution of the county government towards the national goal cannot be gainsaid. To achieve sustainable development, there is need for sufficient funding to the agriculture sector with the broad aim of ensuring availability of food across our county,” Ms. Naivasha noted.
The Coffee and Tea industries which play a major role in the county’s economy have also been allocated Sh20 million. A similar amount has been set aside to provide farm inputs such as fertilizer and seeds to the farmers and Sh.10 million for the completion of Mukothima grain store in Tharaka Constituency.
The county agriculture sector development programme which covers bananas, cereals and dairy value chains has been allocated Sh.22 million.
The Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture programme scooped a huge allocation of Sh.164 million while in the livestock sector, some Sh.35 million will go to veterinary and fisheries development whose purpose is to aid in disease and vector control, artificial insemination services and promotion of dairy and poultry production in the county.
The county government has pledged it would equally increase investments in the blue economy due to the rise in demand of fish products both locally and nationally.
By Brian Muthuri/Kenneth Marangu
