SIGNING OF LEASE AGREEMENT BETWEEN NIA AND TANA RIVER SUGAR COMPANY AT BURA IRRIGATION SCHEME.

The National Irrigation Authority (NIA), Chief Executive Officer, Eng. Charles Muasya, MBS, hosted Paul Limoh, Chief Executive Officer of Tana River Sugar Company, alongside senior officers from both organizations at NIA Head Office for a signing of lease agreement of 50,000 acres within the Bura Irrigation Scheme.

On boarding of the investors in Bura through PPP has been made possible through the support of the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation under the leadership CS Eng Mugaa and the Principal Secretary, State Department for Irrigation, CPA Ephantus Kimotho, CBS.

In addition to the lease agreement, the parties also signed a commercial agreement among other legal instruments meant to allow the investor open up more land for large scale sugarcane production in Bura. The signing follows a successful trial phase where the company has planted 700 acres of seed cane for eight sugarcane varieties.

The investor will use modern technology and precision agriculture to maximize the available land for sugarcane production. As they expand the area under sugar cane production, they will create additional job opportunities to the local communities on top of the about 200 workers already engaged in the 700 acres currently under crop. They will also establish sugar cane milling plants and other value addition infrastructure.

NIA CEO Eng. Charles Muasya, MBS, promised to ensure the provision of irrigation water and all other necessary support to the investor for successful implementation of the project, and he further called on the investor to progressively crop the entire farm within the stipulated timeframe so as to help reduce the sugar production gap in Kenya, contribute to food production, reduction of poverty, creation of employment opportunities, and lowering of the cost of living as espoused in the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).