Deputy President Kithure Kindiki with Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe and other officials at Jamhuri ASK on October 7, 2026/DPCSDeputy President Kithure Kindiki has urged farmers to embrace technology and new global trends in agriculture, saying precision farming will shape the future of the sector.
Kindiki said smart agriculture was rapidly taking root in Kenya as research and innovation drive the development of new crop varieties, improved animal breeds and higher yields.
Speaking at the Jamhuri Park ASK Showground in Nairobi, where he officially opened the Agriculture and Food Security Transformation Summit, the Deputy President said farmers must keep pace with technological changes transforming agriculture globally.
“I am very happy to see technology being applied in our farming. The world is moving towards smart farming and I have seen a lot of technology,” he said, citing the use of drones as an example of how technology is improving precision agriculture.
Kindiki said precision farming would enable farmers to apply inputs only where they were needed, cutting wastage while improving productivity.
“That is the future of agriculture where you apply fertilizer and pesticides to the crop that requires that input and not to apply everywhere,” he said.
“You can use the right quantities that are needed and this precision farming is the next frontier of our agriculture.”
The DP said the adoption of technology was part of the government's broader strategy to transform agriculture, which he said was placed at the centre of the country's economic transformation four years ago.
“Four years ago, the government decided to place agriculture at the center of Kenya’s transformation,” he said.
He said the government had also strengthened its engagement with farmers and other stakeholders, including through an expanded farmer registration system.
“We upgraded the register of farmers which had only 300,000 of them to the current database of 7.2 million crop farmers and 3 million livestock keepers,” Kindiki said.
The Deputy President, who was accompanied by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe, Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka, Principal Secretary Paul Ronoh and other government officials, said interventions in the sector had also reduced the cost of key farm inputs.
He said the price of a 50kg bag of fertiliser had dropped from Sh7,000 to Sh2,000 through the government subsidy programme.
“Certified maize seed price has fallen by 50 per cent from 300 to Sh150 per kilogram,” he said.
Kindiki also cited reduced costs in livestock breeding, saying the price of sexed semen used in artificial insemination of dairy cows had fallen from Sh8,000 to Sh1,400 per dose.
He said the government was also implementing a nationwide livestock vaccination programme, with 8.9 million cattle vaccinated so far.
The programme targets the country's entire population of about 22 million cattle and 50 million small stock.
Kindiki said the measures had contributed to growth in agricultural production and exports, with Kenya now the leading exporter of processed milk in Africa.
He said milk production had increased from 4.6 billion litres to 5.2 billion litres, while the value of dairy products had risen from Sh4.9 billion to Sh8.9 billion.
“The value of dairy products has risen from Sh4.9 to Sh8.9 billion while that of meat exports has risen from Sh8.9 to Sh12.9 billion,” he said.
