Agriculture growth rises on increased tea, milk production

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 9 – Kenya’s agriculture growth rose to 5.4 per cent in 2020 compared to the 3 per cent figure recorded in 2019, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has revealed.

The rise signifies the sector’s resilience despite last year’s desert locust invasion in various parts of the country, the COVID-19 pandemic and the short rains which posed a threat to farmers’ harvests.

The growth was partly attributed to the increased production of tea and food crops such as beans, rice, sorghum and millet.

Adequate rainfall in tea growing areas contributed to a 24.1 per cent increase in its production which rose to 569.5 thousand tonnes in 2019/20. crop year.

KNBS said the volume of sugar cane deliveries increased from 4.4 million to 6.0 million tonnes in 2020 due to the ‘availability of mature sugar cane.”

On the other hand, the volume of marketed milk increased by 2.1 per cent from 668.2 million litres in 2019 to 682.3 million litres in 2020.

Maize production, however, decreased slightly from 44.0 million bags in 2019 to 42.1 million bags in 2020, similarly to coffee whose production dropped from 45.0 thousand tonnes in 2018/19 to 36.9 thousand tonnes in 2019/20.

“Multiple factors affected coffee production such as poor weather conditions in the coffee-growing areas, inadequate application of farm inputs by smallholder farmers and the shift in land use from coffee farming to real estate among others,” the survey added.

The volume of horticultural exports decreased by 4.5 per cent from 328.3 thousand tonnes in 2019 to 313.6 thousand tonnes in 2020.

Overall, the value of marketed agricultural production increased by 9.3 per cent from Shs 466.3 billion in 2019 to KSh 509.7 billion in 2020.

“Crops contributed the highest share of the marketed production in 2020, at 68.0 per cent. Favourable weather conditions resulted in higher production and hence higher earnings for various commodities,” the survey added.