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Kenya’s county governments have been urged to take a leading role in attracting private sector investment into agriculture to strengthen value chains and improve farmer earnings.
Mutahi Kagwe, the Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Development, said counties must position themselves as agribusiness investment hubs to unlock the commercial potential of farming while supporting smallholder farmers who dominate the sector.
Speaking during the Jumuiya ya Kaunti za Pwani Agricultural Revitalisation Summit in Malindi, Kagwe noted that agriculture projects managed solely by government institutions have often struggled to achieve commercial success.
He said stronger collaboration with private investors could inject the capital, technology, and management expertise needed to transform agriculture into a profitable enterprise for farmers.
“Expecting money from the exchequer to help us in enterprise doesn’t really work,” Kagwe said, adding that counties should actively seek partnerships that bring efficiency and market linkages to local farming systems.
According to the CS, counties have a strategic opportunity to leverage public agricultural assets to attract investors.
These include large tracts of land managed by the Agricultural Development Corporation, research farms operated by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, and land managed by correctional facilities that could be opened up for commercial agricultural production.
He said structured public–private partnerships around such assets could stimulate large-scale farming, agro-processing, and export-oriented value chains while providing reliable markets for farmers.
Kagwe cited the turnaround of the Galana-Kulalu Food Security Project as an example of how private participation can revitalise stalled agricultural initiatives. The irrigation scheme, which had faced years of delays under government management, has recently attracted private investors to scale up food production.
The CS also pointed to the performance gap between government-owned cashew processing factories and privately run plants along the coast. According to him, investor-led facilities have shown higher efficiency and better market performance compared to those operated by the public sector.
Agricultural regulators say the coastal region has significant untapped potential in crops such as coconut, cashew nuts, cassava, and rice. However, production has declined over the years due to aging trees, limited processing capacity, and inadequate investment.
Renewed private sector participation could help revive these value chains by financing modern processing plants, improving seed varieties, and supporting farmer training programmes.
For smallholder farmers, such partnerships could translate into stronger contract farming arrangements, improved access to inputs and mechanisation services, and more reliable market access through structured supply chains.
Industry stakeholders say the expansion of agro-processing facilities would also help reduce post-harvest losses and create rural jobs, while enabling farmers to capture more value from their produce.
However, Kagwe warned that land fragmentation remains a major threat to the commercialisation of agriculture in Kenya. Increasing subdivision of family land into smaller plots is making mechanised farming and large-scale investment more difficult.
“In some cases, a single acre has been divided among several children, making it nearly impossible to run profitable farming operations,” he said.
He called for a national conversation on sustainable land use policies to preserve farm sizes that can support commercial agriculture.
Agriculture remains one of Kenya’s most important economic sectors, contributing significantly to national output and employment.
Experts say stronger partnerships between counties, investors, and farmers could unlock new growth opportunities while improving incomes for millions of rural households that depend on farming.
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