President William Ruto addresses farmers during the Agriculture and Food Security town hall at Jamhuri Park, Nairobi on October 8, 2026. / SCREENGRABPresident William Ruto has said farming is so important to him that he feels unwell when he goes for weeks without visiting his farm.
Ruto made the remarks during the Agriculture and Food Security town hall at Jamhuri Park in Nairobi on Thursday, where he spoke directly to farmers on the government's agricultural policies and priorities.
"I am also speaking as a farmer. And if there is one thing that I am very proud of, is that I am a farmer, and I love farming," Ruto said.
"In fact, many days when I don't go to the farm for like three weeks, I really get sick because the farm is a very special place," he said.
The President said his administration had made deliberate commitments on agriculture and food systems in 2022 and documented them in its manifesto to allow Kenyans to hold the government to account.
He said one of the commitments was to base interventions in agriculture on accurate data rather than guesswork.
Ruto said the government had expanded the registration of farmers on its digital platform and now had 8.9 million farmers registered.
He said the data had helped the government establish the number of farmers in the country and improve the distribution of farm inputs.
Ruto said farmers seeking subsidised fertiliser now have to use vouchers issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, which he said had helped prevent people without farms and middlemen from accessing the subsidised input.
He also said the data was helping the government identify farmers by the commodities they produce, including tea, goats and maize, to improve planning.
Ruto said the second major commitment was to focus government interventions at the production level rather than subsidising food at the point of consumption.
He cited the cost of maize flour in 2022, when a two-kilogramme packet of unga retailed at Sh250, saying the government at the time sought to address food prices through consumption subsidies.
"We said that is not how to solve the food security problem. You don't solve the food security problem by going to the supermarket because unga does not come from the supermarket. Unga comes from the farm. So if you want to intervene, the best place to intervene is at the farm," Ruto said.
