KENYA MOJA

  Kenya’s ambition to transform agriculture and secure national food supplies is no longer a matter of theory but a matter of urgent policy action. With food production increasingly constrained by climate variability , erratic rainfall , and rising demand, the country is pushing to expand irrigated agriculture and modernise its water management systems . But as the State Department for Irrigation leads this push, the question arises not just how much more land can be irrigated, but how much water is optimised and used effectively. This is the core of the next irrigation frontier: the balance between expanding land under irrigation and ensuring that every drop of water delivers maximum productive value. Expanding Irrigated Land: Ambition Meets Reality Kenya’s National Irrigation Sector Investment Plan (NISIP) provides the framework for long-term growth in irrigation. The plan seeks to bring an additional one million acres under irrigation by 2030, building on about 747,000 acr...

The debate on irrigation in Kenya often gravitates toward scale. Big dams, vast canals, and thousands of acres under command sound impressive and, in many cases, are necessary. Yet food security is not only a function of size. It is shaped by how quickly water reaches crops, how efficiently it is used, and how closely production decisions reflect the realities of farmers on the ground. In this context, farmer-led irrigation deserves far more attention than it usually receives, not as a replacement for large schemes, but as a powerful engine of food production that works quietly, consistently, and at speed. Across the country, thousands of smallholder farmers are already irrigating their land using water pans , shallow wells , boreholes , river abstractions , and small pumps . These systems rarely make headlines, yet collectively they contribute a substantial share of vegetables, cereals, fodder , and horticultural produce that feeds urban and rural markets every day. Their streng...