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Kenya’s agriculture sector gets Sh4 billion grant from Sweden
The Kenyan agriculture and livestock sector has received a Sh4 billion grant from the Swedish Government. The National Agriculture and Livestock Extension Programme will get Sh3.27 billion while Sh350 million will go towards enhancing market accessibility for agricultural products.
Some Sh470 million will be spent on the financial sector, targeting the improvement of provision of the financial services to farmers and micro, small and medium enterprises.
The grant was formally presented to the Finance Minister, Mr Amos Kimunya, by the Swedish ambassador to Kenya, Ms Anna Brandt, who said the Nalep initiative had improved the training of public officers and private practitioners.
"Swedish support to the Kenyan agricultural sector has been geared towards reforms in the field extension service. And the programme has reached over 500,000 farmers spread across all the districts," she said. While receiving the grant at the Treasury, Kimunya thanked the Swedish government for its continued support to the country since 1965.
Kimunya observed that increased funding and implementation of reforms had resulted in an expansion of the agricultural sector by 6.7 per cent last year. The previous year the sector grew by 1.6 per cent. The growth was attributed to increased production of milk, cereals, horticulture, fish and coffee.
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