Moiben MP Silas Tiren has asked the national government to address the current crisis facing the agriculture sector in the country.
Speaking at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) depot in Eldoret, Tiren said agriculture is the backbone of the county's economy and should be allocated a bigger share of the budget to ensure food security.
Tiren asked the government to honour the Maputo Declaration, saying this will benefit farmers in the country.
“It is now over 10 years since we signed the Maputo Declaration and despite agriculture being key to our country’s economy and food security, nothing has been done,” the legislator said.
He said with Kenya being a signatory to the declaration, the country currently gives agriculture only three per cent of its budgetary allocation, contrary to the Maputo Declaration.
At the Second Ordinary Assembly of the African Union in July 2003 in Maputo, African Heads of State and government endorsed the “Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa” (Assembly/AU/Decl. 7(II)).
The declaration contained several important decisions regarding agriculture, but prominent among them was the “commitment to the allocation of at least 10 per cent of national budgetary resources to agriculture and rural development policy implementation within five years”.