Agriculture employs more than 80% of Kenya's populace whether directly or indirectly. This fiscal year's budget was more or less drawn to tackle the problem of inflation especially in the high food and fuel prices in the country. The minister allocated a lot of funds to the supply side of food production and here are 5 ways our farmers can take advantage of the earmarked funds.

1. Irrigation

KES 10.2 billion was allocated for expanding and initiating new irrigation projects. The National irrigation board got a shot in the arm after being designated with such an investment (KES 8.6 billion conditional transfer) that will go a long way in improving food security in Kenya. Around 1.7 million acres of land in Kenya has high productivity potential, although only a fifth of it is irrigated. The Israeli agricultural example shows what can happen if we get serious with irrigation.

2. Water Harvesting

KES 1.6 billion allocated to water harvesting and building water pans is also good news to farmers and other agricultural investors given water is a very important input in farming. It also presents an area of investment for those indirectly involved in farming.

3. Impact Investing

The finance minister proposed to parliament to amend the law and start an impact investing fund with KSh 1 billion for pilot Fund to catalyze funding to agriculture which will grow to KES 5 billion according to his plan.
Livestock farmers also have reason to smile especially those in ASAL (Arid and Semi Arid) areas as they were allocated KES 400 million under the Kenya Incentive Based Risk Sharing Agricultural Lending (KIRSAL) to be implemented over a four year period in order to leverage KSh. 50 billion lending to agricultural sector and rural development targeting another 1.5 million smallholder farmers and over 10,000 agribusinesses throughout the country

4. Coffee Farmers

Any coffee farmer who has any outstanding claims with co-operative societies will be sorted as KES 2 billion was allocated for this purpose.

5. Infrastructure

Last but not least important, the huge spending on physical infrastructure (almost 23% of the cash) will most definitely help farmers in terms of pushing product. Many agropreneurs make losses just because they cannot get his/her produce to the market in time due to a poor road network especially in deep inside rural Kenya where all the food comes from. Apart from road network upgrade, the new standard gauge train system will create huge opportunities for farmers in terms of transport and logistic costs and at the same time will open a gateway to export farm produce to oil-rich Uganda.