Food security can be achieved if all the land belonging to the National Youth Service is farmed to full capacity, Public Service Principal Secretary Mary Kimonye has said.
The PS said NYS can sustainably feed the nation for decades if the state embarks on extensive farming.
Most of the farms are fertile with a ready and trained workforce of youths recruited to the NYS programme, she said.
Kimonye spoke on Monday during a field visit to Yatta, Mavoloni and Athi River NYS units in Yatta subcounty of Machakos.
The three field units have 7,620 acres but only about 800 acres under cultivation.
The PS said the government is expanding farming activities in all NYS units to increase food production.
“We are doing this progressively every year, increasing the acreage being cultivated. We are also coming up with policies and regulations that will facilitate the programme and eventually ensure we cultivate the tracts of land to full capacity so as to produce enough food for our country,” she said.
The PS said the government is looking for funds to provide water for irrigation in all units and the installation of uninterrupted power supply.
“I’ve learnt that the major hurdle to successfully cultivate the entire land is water inadequacy and power disruptions for water pumping purposes,” she said.
“For instance, Yatta subcounty field units depend on the Yatta canal for irrigation water which is often closed for maintenance and this greatly affects farming activities. The region is semi-arid, hence the need for the government to come up with ways of ensuring that there’s enough water for irrigation,” the PS said.
Some of the crops farmed in Athi River, Yatta and Mavoloni field units include maize, beans, green grams, black beans, cow peas and sweet potatoes. They also grow bananas, avocados, oranges, pawpaws, mangoes and grapes.
“We keep livestock in free-range and zero-grazing units as well as grow cotton in our farms,” Athi River unit commanding officer Samuel Maina said.
Maina said the major problem they are face is inadequate funds to expand farming and lack of water for irrigation.
Kimonye said the NYS will play a crucial role in ensuring the country achieves the targeted 10 per cent forest cover by 2022, noting that it has been mandated to grow seedlings that will be distributed across the country for planting.
Despite the scandals that tainted the service after billions of shillings were looted, NYS still contributes to the country’s economy and is expected to raise Sh1 billion for the 2020-2021 financial year.
“They will raise the money through sale of their products,” Kimonye said.
The PS said the Public Service ministry has completed automation of performance contracting, which will save the taxpayer over Sh700 million annually.
She said for the last 17 years, performance contracting has been done manually at a cost of over Sh280 million every year. The automation was done by the ministry’s IT experts.
“We have over 360 ministries and state departments and we have been doing manual performance contracting for all of them. We pay air tickets and accommodation for staff and every year the expensive affair would cost us Sh280 million until we sign the contracts. This is now a thing of the past,” she said.
Kimonye noted that besides saving money, automating the processes will save time as it will take less than three weeks to complete performance contracting for all ministries, agencies and government parastatals.
“Currently, one officer is able to complete 25 performance contracts in a day. With enough officers working, we will be completing the job in two to three weeks,” she said.
Edited by Henry Makori