• Kenya plans to expand irrigated farmland to 1 million hectares by 2032
  
• 50 mega-dams, 200 medium dams planned to support water capture
  
• Goal is to cut $3B annual food imports, boost local production

Kenya aims to expand its irrigated agricultural land to nearly one million hectares between 2020 and 2032, President William Ruto said in his State of the Nation address on Nov. 20.

This compares to the 288,000 hectares of total agricultural land equipped for irrigation in the country in 2023, as assessed by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization. The development plan for this includes building 50 mega-dams, 200 medium-sized dams, and thousands of micro-dams to capture and store water in regions most exposed to drought.

The Ministry of Water and Irrigation said priority sites for the projects have been identified in the counties of Mandera, Machakos, Kisumu, Laikipia, and Turkana.

"If we are to produce enough for domestic consumption and exports, expanded modern irrigation is now necessary and the only path forward," President Ruto said. "With dams, we can transform our arid and semi-arid areas into hubs of agricultural production, even in the absence of rainfall."

The government's objective through this initiative is to leverage the potential of the agricultural sector better. According to official data, nearly 85% of Kenya's land receives inadequate rainfall, which hinders the productivity of the production system and its ability to meet a larger share of domestic market needs.

Kenya is the second-largest importer of agricultural and food products in East Africa after Ethiopia. A U.N. Trade and Development report published in July said Nairobi's food import bill averaged $2.99 billion per year between 2021 and 2023. Key imported commodities include maize, sugar, edible oils, rice, and wheat.

Stéphanas Assocle