Treasury Allocates 60 Billion Shillings To Agriculture

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani on Thursday presented the 3.3 Trillion 2022/23 budget at the National Assembly, Nairobi.

The budget speech, which is read traditionally in the first or second week of June has been fast-tracked to enable timely approval of the estimates of revenue and expenditure to be included in the Appropriation Bill ahead of the August polls.

In the Agriculture sector, the government has allocated 3 billion shillings to safeguard food security and subsidize farmers during the current planting season.

“We propose to allocate further 2.7 billion shillings in the financial year 2022/23 to cushion the farmers while sustaining food production,’’ CS Yatani said.

To improve livestock production, the government has allocated 500 million shillings for disease outbreak management, 121 million shillings for livestock production under the big 4 initiative, and 1.7 billion shillings for the Kenya livestock commercialization program.

To promote sustainable utilization of the blue economy resources, the government has allocated 1.9 billion shillings for aquaculture business development projects, 2.8 billion shillings for Kenya Marine fisheries, and socio-economic development projects.

the government has allocated 147 million shillings to increase agricultural production and climate change resilience enhancement, 850 million shillings to enhance drought resilience and sustainable livelihood, 178 million shillings towards ending drought emergencies in Kenya, 412 million for the livestock and crop insurance scheme, to reduce the vulnerability of Kenyan farmers to disease and natural disasters.

To ensure the legitimacy of land ownership, the government has recommended 1.1 billion for processing and registration of title deeds, 769 million for digitization of land registries, and 130 million for construction of land registries.

The 2022/23 budget is 4.8 percent more compared to the Sh2.9 trillion budget for the 2020/21 economic year.

CS Yatani said the budget was prepared in line with Kenyans’ key concerns of the high cost of living, unemployment, income inequality, and public debt burden.

Mr. Yatani said the Jubilee administration has refocused spending to sustain economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and support social welfare programs meant to benefit low-income and poor Kenyans.

The budget was the last under President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime. It will cover expenditure for the period between July 1, 2022, to June 31, 2023.

Read More: Ministry of Agriculture Caps Subsidized Fertilizer at 20 Bags Per Farmer