President William Ruto has claimed that during his recent visit to Tanzania, the country's Agriculture Minister complained about losing the Kenyan market for Tanzania's maize.
Speaking on Monday, December 16, during the National and County Governments Coordinating Summit at State House, Nairobi, President Ruto stated that Kenya has not imported any maize this year or last year, as the commodity has been sufficient.
The Head of State revealed that in 2022, the country imported maize worth Ksh10 billion but noted significant progress in achieving self-sufficiency in maize supply.
“In fact, I was in Tanzania the other week and the Minister for Agriculture there was complaining that they have lost market for their maize into Kenya because we have produced enough maize. We imported maize worth Ksh10 billion in 2022. In 2023 and 2024, we did not import any maize meaning we are making progress,” President Ruto remarked.
The president attributed the progress to the government's supply of millions of bags of subsidised fertiliser to farmers in order to increase food production.
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He stated that Kenya currently has high national food stocks, including 95 million 50kg bags of maize, 9 million bags of beans, 10 million bags of wheat, and 2 million bags of rice.
"By distributing over 7 million bags of subsidised fertiliser to farmers, we have significantly increased food production, moving closer to sustainable food security and manageable cost of living.
"We are making significant strides towards eliminating famine and reducing dependence on imports. At the same time, we are witnessing improvements in farmer productivity and incomes across key value chains such as tea, sugar, coffee, and dairy," the president explained.
