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KENYA IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT PATHWAYS WORKSHOP

The National Irrigation Authority on May 9, 2023, hosted the Kenya Irrigation Development Pathways Workshop at the Annex Boardroom. Present was the Irrigation PS Gitonga Mugambi,EBS, Secretary Administration Yatich Kipkemei, World Bank representative Mr. Pieter Waalewijn, KFW representative Priscilla Kinyari, NIA’s Management and staff from the Authority, Ministry of Water, National Water Harvesting and Storage Authority among others.

The objective of the workshop was to share and facilitate documenting of key lessons learned in the implementation of the KWSCRP and the output will be useful in providing practical and implementable recommendations for the irrigation sector, and by formulating future sustainable irrigation and agriculture investments in Kenya.

In his opening remarks PS Mugambi Gitonga, EBS said there is a need to use the lessons learned and challenges as fuel for change and improvement in the Irrigation sector saying there is a big potential for irrigation.

“We are here for positive self-assessment and self-evaluation and share lessons learned from the various assessments by the KFW and World Bank Team on Lower Nzoia Irrigation Project, Smallholder community-based projects in Mt. Kenya, farmer-led micro-irrigation and Performance assessment of perkerra irrigation schemes and map the way forward” PS said.

He continued saying reforms are continuous and called upon all the Irrigation sector players to walk together in the journey toward enabling and improving the sector.

He emphasised on the need to use the lessons and challenges as fuel for change and improvement in the sector and further said there is need to develop a National Irrigation Sector Investment Plan (NISIP).

He urged the sector players to explore the climate resilience programs in the ASALs with a view of improving the situation there.

PS also said expansion plans of the Irrigation Sector in terms of scope and impact are underway and emphasized on accountability to justify the money for irrigation projects.