Inside Kenya’s Ksh598 Billion Irrigation Investment Plan  

The national government recently unveiled the National Irrigation Sector Investment Plan (NISIP), a blueprint aimed at expanding irrigated agriculture and enhancing food security in the country. This initiative, spearheaded by the Ministry of Water, Sanitation, and Irrigation, seeks to address the country’s dependency on rain-fed agriculture amid climate change challenges.  

According to the Cabinet Secretary for Water, Sanitation and Irrigation, Eric Mugaa, NISIP aims to foster collaboration between government agencies, private investors, and development partners.

“NISIP is an integrated programmatic approach that systematically defines and prioritizes different types of irrigation interventions, thereby ensuring coherence, continuity, and effectiveness in implementation using multiple sources of funds and coordinating the players in the sector,” said the CS during the launch of the NISIP program.

Agriculture remains the backbone of Kenya’s economy, contributing approximately 50% to the nation’s GDP. However, only 747,000 acres out of a potential 3.5 million are under irrigation.

The investment plan prioritizes five key pathways: farmer-led irrigation development, modernization of public schemes, promotion of commercial irrigated farming, revitalization of irrigation in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALS), and maximizing community-based irrigation benefits, all aimed at bringing an additional one million acres under irrigation in the next ten years.

“This government is confident that investment in the NISIP pathways will be the fastest and most cost-efficient way to achieve its priority agricultural water development and related socio-economic goals, under the coordination of the sector by the Ministry of water, sanitation and irrigation in collaboration with County governments,” added the CS.

Completion of gravity-fed water supply projects such as that at Bura Irrigation Scheme is expected to sustain irrigation across 15,000 acres, with private investors eyeing 100,000 acres for rice and sugarcane farming. Lower Nzoia’s irrigation project in Siaya and Busia counties will further enhance rice production, adding 56,000 metric tons of paddy annually.

To realize its ambitious goals, NISIP requires Ksh598 billion, with 61% expected from the private sector while the balance is sourced from public coffers.  

Some of the notable achievements of the State Department for Irrigation include.

• The Galana project with private investors ready to develop Galana dam and infrastructure to support production on 200,000 acres that will contribute significantly towards production of maize with a projection of 7million bags annually on completion.
• Completion of the gravity supply system for Bura irrigation scheme to for reliable irrigation water supply for 15,000 acres for the Bura farmers and facilitate uptake of 100,000 acres by private investors to produce rice and sugarcane.
• The Lower Nzoia irrigation project straddling Siaya and Busia Counties will bring into production 10,000 acres to produce an additional 56,000MT of paddy rice.

CS Mugaa noted that despite the numerous challenges in the irrigation sector in Kenya, his Ministry is confident that the NISIP program will go a long way in hastening productivity within the sector.

“This government is confident that investment in the NISIP pathways will be the fastest and most cost-efficient way to achieve its priority agricultural water development and related socio-economic goals, under the coordination of the sector by the Ministry of water, sanitation and irrigation in collaboration with County governments,” he said.