NAIROBI: The government has begun disbursing the 1.4 billion shillings that is expected to help farmers improve the quality of produce meant for the European market.
The money is being disbursed under the European Union sponsored Standard and Market Access Programme. Industrialization Principal Secretary Dr. Wilson Songa says the programme will help Kenya expand the agro-processing sector riding on with the direct market access.
Non adherence to globally acceptable standards has denied Kenya access to some of crucial markets. This is primarily because farmers do not adhere to the right farming techniques, use disease prone seeds or pesticides and herbicides that leave drug residues in the produce or livestock products.
In turn this has also affected the agro-process sector, given that the end product cannot be exported to certain markets. This is what the Standard and Market Access Programme seeks to address.
The European union has availed the funding to support the Kenya Bureau of Standards, Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services and the Department of Veterinary Services enforce standards and help farmers improve the quality of animal and plant based products.
The programme also seeks to build testing and certification capacity for the three bodies, improve outreach and service delivery related to testing and certification to producers, processors and traders of Kenyan plant and animal-based products. The Standard and Market Access Programme runs until end of next year.
