Sh10m budget allocation to the project confirmed it was losing shine despite benefits listed in reports.
Late last month the National Treasury raised eyebrows with news that it had allocated a mere Sh10 million to the Galana-Kulalu Food Security Project.
For Kenyans who have watched for years as the project failed to live up to its billing, it seemed the allocation was the clearest signal yet that the project had failed.
Such pessimism was not misplaced especially considering that it is close to six years since President Uhuru Kenyatta launched it with with fanfare.
It was sold as the answer to Kenya’s persistent food insecurity that would cut the country’s reliance on food imports. The reality today is that Kenya still relies on maize imports to feed a growing population.
In fact, the government has just approved importation of two million bags of white maize to bridge a shortage that has been projected next month.
But the State maintains that the Galana-Kalalu project is still viable and has found a panacea to the financial woes that have delayed its implementation — Public Private Partnership (PPP).
The National Irrigation Authority argues that the Sh10 million is only meant for maintenance of infrastructure in the 10,000-acre model farm.
The total million-acre Galana scheme was supposed to cover the annual deficit that the country experiences and check the high cost of food. However, the project has lagged as the 10,000 acres model was supposed to have been completed leading to opening up of the land for largescale production in 2018.
Funding has been blamed for the slow pace of implementation.
The funding for the model farm, which was a loan from Israel, was reduced to half of Sh7 billion.
And for the last two financial years, the project has been allocated a meagre Sh10 milliont.
That notwithstanding, the government plans to allow largescale investors to plant maize and other crops for mass production.
“We want to revitalise Galana and open it up to investors because it is a viable project that can play a significant role in promoting food security in the country,” said Water Principal Secretary Joseph Irungu.
Mr Irungu said the model farm showed the project will play a key part in food productiony.
A parliamentary committee also backed the project, saying it would approve Sh900 million that has been requested to complete the model farm that now stands at 85 per cent.
“The ministry has requested additional funding and I would like to give an assurance that we are going to approve the money that they want to enable them complete the project,” said Kareke Mbiuki, chairperson of the House Committee on Water and Natural Resources.
Will the PPP give Galana a new lease of life and bring it back to its original course of making Kenya food-secure?
According to Hamadi Boga, the Crops Principal Secretary, that is the only way of making the project viable and moving to the next phase.
PRIVATE SECTOR
“The government should never be in business of doing business, the way forward for the success of this project is to have private investors take it over,” said Prof Boga.
He said for maize cultivation to be profitable, the portions to be planted have to be big enough to make it economically viable.
About 7,000 acres have been cultivated to date with 3,000 put under crop last year.
The initial plan was to open up the entire project to the private sector after the completion of the model farm. And this was to be done in phases.
The first phase would have seen 250,0000 acres put under maize, subject to availability of water as the flow of Galana River would not be sufficient to supply the entire project without damming.
However, the process stalled after the tender floated was cancelled about three years ago.
PPP FRAMEWORK
Mr Irungu said the PPP framework is ready and was hopeful it would not take long for them to get investors.
He said that the previous call for PPP was cancelled because the NIA had not figured out alternative crops after harvesting to increase soil productivity.
When the bids had been advertised, the project received hundreds of applications from all over the world, with foreign firms topping the list of those who wanted to lease land at the Sh260 billion scheme.
The motivation in this project is anchored in the fact that one acre has produced 40 bags of maize in some of the varieties on trials, which is higher than the national average of 17 bags that farmers in the country’s grain basket of Rift Valley harvest from the same size of land.
The target from an acre, according to Israeli firm, Green Arava, which had been contracted to develop the 10,000-acre model farm, was 80 bags of maize from an acre.
The contractor wanted to use a technology applied in Israel, a country that is half desert, has emerged as one of the leading nations in terms of food production and exports.
This contrasts with Kenya, which is 28 times bigger than Israel, with a huge chunk of arable land, but still suffers from perennial food shortages.
The Middle East country has embraced technology in irrigation to feed her population and export the surplus.
However, two weeks Kenya cancelled the contract of Green Arava following a dispute resulting from payment plans.
The dispute between the irrigation agency and Green Arava arose from the Sh1 billion that the contractor is claiming from the NIA, which says the actual figure is Sh200 million.
About 70 per cent of local farmers are small-scale holders and do not enjoy economies of scale, both in acquiring farming inputs and at the time of selling, making them incur high cost of production, pushing up the cost of maize and other cereals like wheat.
A report by the Egerton-based Tegemeo Institute noted that to reduce the high cost of production, the government should seek other options such as irrigation, about which there is a dedicated agency whose mandate was recently enhanced when it became the National Irrigation Authority.
A farmer using irrigation makes a profit of Sh8,495 per acre while a grower depending on rain-fed agriculture earns Sh5,003 as profit from the same field, the research notes.
ERRATIC RAINS
“Irrigated maize comes with high output, high income and high profit in comparable fields,” said Tegemeo in the report.
The institute said the price change does not affect the cost of production and that irrigated farms have the potential to produce two to three crops annually.
Most farmers plant twice a year but with many regions experiencing erratic rains, production has dropped.
The model farm has shown that the cost of production under irrigation is cheaper by 40 per cent compared to the conventional way of planting maize, a good indicator that once largescale production starts, it will push down the cost of food.
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