Bilateral meeting with The Honourable Ali Hassan Joho, Minister for Blue Economy, and The Honourable Mutahi Kagwe, Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development of the Republic of Kenya

Rome - The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, met today at FAO Headquarters with the The Honourable Ali Hassan Joho, Minister for Blue Economy, and The Honourable Mutahi Kagwe, Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development of the Republic of Kenya.  

The Director-General welcomed the delegation to FAO Headquarters and appreciated the fruitful collaboration between FAO and Kenya and reaffirmed the Organization’s commitment to continue supporting Kenya for the transformation of its agrifood system.

The Cabinet Secretary thanked the Director-General and appreciated the positive trajectory and the innovative ways in which the Director-General has steered the Organization and stated that Kenya remained firmly committed to agrifood systems transformation using the bottom-up approach, particularly working in close collaboration with small householder farmers. 

The Cabinet Secretary further stated that the national Agriculture Strategy, which was launched in 2020 was up for review five-years on and requested FAO’s support in this regard. He also requested FAO’s assistance with training of youth and for the introduction of ICT in Agriculture Colleges in Kenya as a means of youth empowerment in the field of agriculture, as well as for the training of extension officers to enable them to train smallholder rural farmers. The Cabinet Secretary further referred to the need for FAO’s technical expertise for digitization through data collection systems to enhance value chains to commercialize the agriculture, livestock and fishing sectors, as well as for dealing with the locust desert plague. 

The Minister also provided an overview of national legislation for the introduction of buffalo farming in schools to improve food production and self-sufficiency in schools. 

The Minister for Blue Economy conveyed appreciation for FAO’s support for the fisheries sector and in particular requested increased technical assistance for the stock assessment of aquaculture and blue economy materials, as well as for the establishment of systems to prevent post-harvest loss to improve market access.

The Director-General reaffirmed FAO's commitment to assist Kenyan farmers to be self-sufficient. He stated that FAO can assist through its farmers’ school and through e-learning programmes. He acknowledged that post-harvest management for fish was pivotal and stated that FAO would provide all the technical assistance needed in this regard. He further advised the government to engage the private sector in aquaculture projects to ensure the sector’s rapid growth and sustainability.