Joel Tanui champions Kenya’s Rice Production Goals during Thailand Visit
When Kenya’s Irrigation Secretary for Land Reclamation, Climate Resilience and Irrigation Water Management, Mr. Joel Tanui , visited Thailand’s irrigation and rice institutions in Chiang Mai , the significance went far beyond diplomatic exchange. It was a strategic benchmarking mission . At its core was a simple but urgent question: how did Thailand move from food insecurity to becoming one of the world’s leading rice exporters , and what can Kenya practically replicate? For a country like Kenya, where rice imports still fill part of the national consumption gap, the lessons from Thailand are not academic. They are economic. They are strategic. And they are deeply relevant to the future of irrigation, climate resilience , and food security. Why Thailand Matters to Kenya’s Irrigation Ambition Thailand made a deliberate decision decades ago to stabilize its agriculture through irrigation. Instead of relying on seasonal rainfall, it invested in dams , canals, and structured wat...