Water and Irrigation Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki said the Treasury is now finalising the PPP framework that will guide the privatisation of the farm.
The Galana/Kulalu Food Security Project started seven years ago with the intention of opening up more than 1.2 million acres of land belonging to the Agricultural Development Corporation to irrigation.
The National Irrigation Authority is currently putting basic irrigation infrastructure on the remaining 4,900 acres.
The National Treasury has started the commercialisation of the Galana-Kulalu irrigation scheme, targeting international and local investors through Private Partnership Programme (PPP) arrangements.
Water and Irrigation Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki said the Treasury is now finalising the PPP framework that will guide the privatisation of the farm.
“The process is being managed by the National Treasury. Investor briefings have already been done, and the project is packaged and is already out in the market,” said Ms Kariuki.
She added that the government has decided that based on the efficiencies of the private sector in agricultural production, once the model farm is complete with the basic irrigation infrastructure, the 10,000-acre lot will be competitively commercialised.
“The best bid that we get under the terms that the National Treasury has set out is the one that is going to come in and continue from where we stop with the model farm,” she said.
The Galana/Kulalu Food Security Project started seven years ago with the intention of opening up more than 1.2 million acres of land belonging to the Agricultural Development Corporation to irrigation.
The government then decided to commence the project by way of a 10,000-acre pilot farm, 5,100 acres of which have already been covered in the last three years and have started production of various crops, chief among them maize.
The National Irrigation Authority is currently putting basic irrigation infrastructure on the remaining 4,900 acres.
