Enhancing Agricultural Productivity Project

Enhancing Agricultural Productivity Project is a project in Kenya implemented by the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture and funded by the World Bank. The project seeks to extend credit to farmers, help farmers purchase more agricultural inputs, and to promote the planting of drought tolerant "orphan" crops. The project was approved by the World Bank in March 2010.

"The objective of the Enhancing Agricultural Productivity Project for Kenya is to assist the recipient to increase access to agricultural inputs and technologies among targeted smallholder farmers in selected districts. There are four components to the project, the first component being up-scaling the existing agricultural credit program (Kilimo Biashara) at a cost of Euro 5.07 million. The project will build on the partnerships already established between the Government, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and Equity Bank to leverage additional credit and scale up loans to farmers. The overall strategy is to leverage Equity Bank's enormous resources through a 10 percent guarantee fund on the basis of which Equity Bank will provide credit facilities of up to US$50 million to smallholder farmers, agro-input dealers and other value chain players in the agricultural sector. The second component is the up scaling the existing input voucher scheme (Kilimo Plus) in selected districts through the Government's National Accelerated Agricultural Inputs Access Program (NAAIAP) at a cost of Euro 9.47 million. The third component is the up-scaling of the orphan crop program at a cost of Euro 3.08 million. This component will focus on supplying planting materials of orphan crops to smallholder farmers in semi-arid areas. This will involve promoting farmer involvement in seed bulking and multiplication of orphan and other crops, including sorghum, cassava and millet. These crops are drought tolerant and more suitable for such areas and could be important substitutes to maize both for human consumption and in providing alternative ingredients to maize in animal feed production. Finally, the fourth component is the support to project administration costs."

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch articles

• Orphan Crops
• Orphan Crops Programme (Kenya)
• Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
• Traditional Food Plants of Kenya

External Articles

• "European Union to finance agricultural programmes in Kenya," Kenya Ministry of Agriculture.
• "Launch of traditional crops seeds distribution," Kenya Ministry of Agriculture.
• "Assistant Minister Hon. Kareke Mbiuki launches orphan crop seeds," Kenya Ministry of Agriculture.