SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY HON. UHURU KENYATTA, C.G.H.

, PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE DEFENCE FORCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA DURING THE 2013 A.S.K. NAIROBI INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR, JAMHURI PARK SHOWGROUND, NAIROBI, 2ND OCTOBER, 2013
Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure to join you at the 2013 Nairobi International Trade Fair. I thank the Agricultural Society of Kenya and other stakeholders who participated in this year's show. A large number of local and international exhibitors are here. The Trade Fair has certainly grown in stature, improved its standard and become a world-class agriculture and trade exposition. It therefore affords an opportunity for all agri-business actors to interact and be empowered. A lot of learning will take place at this event, and everyone will benefit from the opportunities produced by stakeholder contact and exchange of knowledge. I invite all our international exhibitors and visitors to feel at home and enjoy Kenyan hospitality as they go about their business at this Trade Fair. At the same time, I encourage Kenyan participants to embrace the chance offered in this event to learn more, and take their agribusiness enterprises to the next level. This Fair incorporates aspects of cross-sectoral collaboration as well as regional integration and international interaction. It is a unique space where every participant is a beneficiary, and no one loses. I also thank the Society for the choice of this year's theme:" Enhancing Technology and Industry for Food Security and National Growth". It enunciates the national aspiration comprised in the Kenya Vision 2030, as well as the Jubilee Government's of integrating science and technology into agricultural production and trade to accelerate prosperity. By focusing national attention on these important ideas in each exhibition throughout the year, the Agricultural Society of Kenya has done well for itself, and for our country. I encourage you to sustain debate on this subject to promote economic growth. Food security employment creation and economic growth are my Government's key priorities. Agribusiness offers tremendous opportunity to realise these goals. We are of one mind as a nation that rain-fed, subsistence, manual farming, coupled with reducing arable area and environmental degradation pose significant challenges. It renders our communities unable to feed themselves, and produces very little surplus to generate incomes. Gainful employment then becomes difficult to secure for meaningful numbers within the sector. My Government has made specific commitments regarding Agriculture, ICT, Industry and National transformation. These commitments have to be anchored in a sound policy and legislative framework to accelerate industrialisation and economic transformation. The enactment of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority Act, 2013 (AFFA) provides the legislative foundation. Rapid growth in agribusiness: research-supported, technology-based, value-added production will expand employment and investment opportunities throughout Kenya. Our strategies encompass both ASALs as well as traditional producers. We intend to leave no region behind. The potential of all regions of Kenya has been profiled and rationalised. By expanding the scale of agribusiness activity as well as increasing its

diversity, we aim to make everyone in Kenya a producer and employer, and transform Kenya into a continental bread basket. Mechanisation and irrigation will increase acreage of production. The livestock value chain is diversified to include cattle, goat and camel dairy, beef ranching, poultry, rabbit, bee and fish farming and their industrial by-products. A broader prism of crop production, entailing traditional high-value crops as well as key cereal and horticultural production, will increase opportunities for agricultural activity. This diversification will ensure that the agricultural potential of every region of this country is fully unlocked. The specific initiatives in this regard include the Irrigation Master Plan whose implementation will bring additional 1 million acres of land under irrigation within the next 5 years. Government has established the Fertilizer and Seed Development Fund with an initial investment of Kshs 5 billion, which will be escalated to Kshs. 20 billion, with a long term view of establishing a fertiliser manufacturing plant in the country. Budgetary support for agriculture has been stepped up to comply with the Maputo Declaration. My Government will continue to attract and direct private sector investment in agribusiness to increase funding even further. To mitigate environmental degradation and climate change, the Jubilee Government will work towards attaining 10% tree cover. The National Action Plan on Climate Change will avail the framework for long-term responses to the threats of climate change. Additionally, the Agriculture Sector Development Strategy provides a platform for public and private sector collaborations in eliminating challenges in the sector. Moreover, the ASAL-based Livestock and Rural Livelihoods Support Project (ALLPRO) has rehabilitated 39 water pans, 120 shallow wells and 8 boreholes to water animals as well as Animal Health Laboratories to reduce disease detection time and increase capacity to avert outbreaks. A camel mini-dairy plant is also being installed in Garissa under ALLPRO. Our tea farmers have sustained a quality that has registered continually increased earnings and stimulated demand in emerging foreign markets. Coffee has managed to improve production by 13.5%, even though land under it declined by 45%. To enhance the two crop sub-sectors, my Government will implement the Land Policy while availing incentives for the pursuit of value-addition, enhanced productivity and export to new markets. Cane delivery to mills increased by 3% in 2012, contributing to a 4% increase in sugar production. There are substantial concerns about the sub-sector's competitiveness. I therefore urge sugar industry stakeholders to take urgent measures to enhance efficiency at every point of the sugar value chain. This is important since failure to improve efficiency and competitiveness will result to the relative under-development in the sugar producing regions of the country. As I have had occasion to state, the Jubilee transformation will not allow anyone to be left behind. I commend the exceptional synergy among horticultural sector producers which took advantage of legal and institutional support to achieve a significant growth in production. The cooperation between major value chain players on the one hand, and the Horticultural Crops Development Authority, as well as the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate on the other hand, led to considerably increased production, export and earnings in the sector. Hongera. The dairy sub-sector continues to increase employment opportunities and earnings, year after year. Between 2011 and 2012, milk production increased by 10.6%, leading to a 22% increase in earnings. Even so, its potential is far from exhausted. I therefore encourage Kenyans throughout the country to take advantage of this money-maker.

There is support from my Government for Artificial Insemination services, cottage value addition as well as feed ration formulation. Over one and half million additional beef cattle were raised between 2011 and 2012, resulting in an increase in beef production of 125,000 metric tonnes. My Government is going to set up abattoirs strategically throughout the country to maximise on production and minimise losses during periods of harsh climate. I encourage farmers to exploit the potential offered by unsatisfied domestic demand as well as the export market. 80% of beef production is ASAL-based. On its part, my Government will support production through development infrastructure and quality assurance, establishment of disease-free zones, rehabilitation of livestock holding grounds, reseeding of denuded range lands as well as the construction of water storage facilities. Pig and poultry production continues to grow each year. Local and international demand for fish is also rising. We have potential of 1.4 million hectares for fish farming to produce 450,000 metric tonnes of fish. Only 2,000 hectares are in use. About 50,000 fish ponds have been constructed in 160 constituencies under the Economic Stimulus Programme. This has raised aquaculture by over 400%. Those who have embraced fish farming are very satisfied farmers. You can see the opportunity for yourselves. Please embrace it. Fish processing technology at Lake Turkana has enabled our fish access regional markets. Our Indian Ocean Economic Zone is yet to be fully utilised. But we are working hard to change that situation. Offshore research and patrol will strengthen ocean resource governance, while accredited analytical laboratories will support the Directorate of Fish Quality Assurance and Marketing to enhance productivity. This will create the necessary environment for investors to immerse themselves in large-scale, quality marine fish production. I invite stakeholders to keenly study this opportunity and strike when the iron is still hot. The agricultural sector is not complete without mention of the cooperative sector. 10.1 million cooperators subscribe to 13,250 organisations with a share capital of about Kshs 230 billion, which also represents the cooperators' savings. By any account, the cooperative movement is a significant driver of our economy in all sectors, not least of all, Agriculture. My Government will continue to strengthen and support the cooperative movement to enhance confidence and encourage more members to join. My Government has embarked on various infrastructure projects whose cumulative effect is to accelerate regional integration, open up previously marginalised areas and improve national connectivity. The result is expected to be expanded investment and production throughout the country. The LAPSSET Transport Corridor, connecting Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia through Northern Kenya promises to transform Kenya's economic landscape. The standard-gauge railway connecting the Port of Mombasa to Rwanda through Uganda is another such transformative infrastructural initiative. Moreover, funds have been devolved to enable county governments improve farm gateto-market connectivity to reduce agricultural production costs. The opportunities in agriculture, and its transformation into a purely commercial activity entailing the use of technology are opportunities for young people. I urge the youth to take full advantage of them. My Government has enhanced institutional and financial support for youth enterprise. This extends to farming. We want to see more young Kenyans employing themselves and others, and earning meaningful incomes from agriculture. The promise is evident, and the reward certain. Once again, I thank the organisers of this Fair, and all those who have made time to come and benefit from the array of knowledge and opportunity on offer. May you each have a fruitful outing and prosperous agribusiness and industrial enterprise.

I declare the 2013 ASK Nairobi International Trade Fair officially open. Thank you, and God bless you.