Ministry adopts new strategy to double rice production

Fast maturing rice variety dubbed Nerica 11 Upland that Kephis has been introduced in Busia county. [Ignatius Odanga/Standard]

Rice is the third most important staple crop in Kenya after maize and wheat.

With the rice consumption in Kenya growing at a rapid rate of 12 per cent per year, meaning 12kg per person per year, the Ministry of Agriculture has come up with a National Rice Development strategy for 2019-2030 projections.

Speaking during a Kenya Rice Value Chain programme, Jane Ndung’u who heads the Rice Promotion Programme stated that the overall objective is to attain rice self-sufficiency through an 11-fold increase in domestic production before year 2030.

“We are planning on producing 1,300,000 tons by 2030 from the 115,000 tons,” Ndung’u said.

She also noted the promotion of small and medium enterprises promoted and three value-added rice products.

Nevertheless, it was evident that some targets set for last ten-year National Development Strategy were achieved.

This included the overall objective to double up rice production in the country by 2018.

“We achieved to triple our production from 53,000MT to 150,000MT which is a major improvement in the rice sector,” said Ndung’u.

The adoption of demand-driven rice technologies was also among the achievements in that it was possible to incorporate mechanical harvesting, hybrid rice, SRI modification to WSRC and improved ratooning. 


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