Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Will Bett addressing farmers in Eldoret town on Saturday, December 16, 2017. [Photo/ Elvanis Ronoh]
Make idle land usable Bett urges farmers
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Will Bett has urged farmers to make all idle land usable.
He said this will help make the country food secure and those who will put their farm to good use will be penalized.
“It sad that over 60,000 of fertile land lies idle owned by private farmers and parastatals. We want to ensure that such land is put to good use to increase the area of crop production,” he said in Eldoret town, Saturday.
“We will come up with a law that will compel owners of unused big chunks of land to pay high taxes if they don’t do farming or lease it. The law will come in place sooner or later, we cannot allow land to stay idle yet we are food insecure,” he added.
He reiterated that by 2020 Kenya should be food secure.
Bett called upon farmers to deliver their maize to Kisumu and Bungoma depots since at the moment Eldoret and Moi’sbridge depots are crowded.
“Let us also put to use the other two depots since they have less farming delivering their maize,” he said.