News Wealthy Investors to be Given Idle Kenya Gov't Land for Large-Scale Farming

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The Ministry of Agriculture says investors interested in idle government land to carry out large-scale commercial farming must show their financial muscle.

This comes after the Cabinet last month approved a policy that seeks to provide a framework for the utilization of idle land owned by State institutions for large-scale commercial agricultural production.

Agriculture PS Harry Kimtai said a committee tasked to come up with the leasing framework will demand proof of involvement in major investment activities as a requirement to be allocated dormant land under the program.

“We are not going to discriminate on individuals who want to invest in these lands, however, the person has to show us proof of being an investor as well as having a certain amount of money to lease the farm,” said Kimtai as quoted by Nation.

The PS said the requirement is meant to prevent a situation where an individual or company bids for a lease and then fails to utilize the allocated land.

Under the program, thousands of acres of public land will be leased to private investors for food and cash crop production that relies less on rain-fed agriculture in favor of irrigation.

Idle government land in counties such as Isiolo, Samburu, Mandera, Turkana and Wajir will also be allocated to private investors to specifically grow pasture for livestock to avert animal deaths during dry season.

“We want to bring in people who can use this land for the production of pasture so that the pastoralists will not have to move to other regions such as Ethiopia and Uganda in search of fodder,” PS Kimtai added.




Source: Mwakilishi
 
This is the one of the best ideas that I've heard from the government, instead of letting lands being idle they should be used to generate income and even create employments. The only problem is that these big politicians will take over these lands and then take them as their own after sometime.
 
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