Sustained horticultural production is essential to the realisation of the goals and targets of the Kenya Vision 2030. Despite the significant growth that the industry has attained, the sub-sector has been operating without a policy. This status is no longer tenable given serious emerging challenges both locally and internationally. This National Horticulture Policy has been developed to ensure that the growth and competitiveness of the industry are sustained into the future.; The broad objective of this policy is to accelerate and sustain growth and development of the horticultural industry in order to enhance its contribution towards food security, poverty reduction as well as employment and wealth creation.; The specific policy objectives towards the broad objective are to: (i) facilitate increased production of high-quality horticultural produce, (ii) enhance provision of the subsector's support services like finances, insurance and technical advisory services. (iii) promote value addition and increase domestic and external trade, (iv) develop and improve infrastructure to support the horticultural industry particularly in major production areas, (v) establish, strengthen and entrench institutional, legal and regulatory framework in the horticultural industry, (vi) promote mechanisms for socio-economic and environmental sustainability while addressing cross-cutting issues, (vii) promote horticultural investment in the ASALS.; In order to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, the policy proposes the following activities: (i) stakeholders in the industry will partner to enhance soil fertility management, (ii) the Government will facilitate public–private partnerships in adopting appropriate technologies such as greenhouses to exploit untapped potential in the high- and medium-potential areas and in the ASALs, (iii) exploration of innovative systems that include best practices of producing and bulking planting material, and promote the up-scaling of successful systems, (iv) facilitate the development of long-term plans and suitability maps/profiles for various eco-zones for horticulture investment, (v) promote the adoption of modern technologies through improved provision of advisory services by the public and private sector extension service providers.; Regarding the rural poverty reduction, the policy proposes the following interventions: (i) provide incentives to the youth and involve them in different horticultural value chains by expanding innovative youth development initiatives and resources to cover the industry, (ii) continuously address factors that limit profitability of the sector to make it an attractive economic venture for the youth. such activities will include integrating horticultural value chain activities with other economic sectors like agro-processing, manufacturing and trade, (iii) to collaborate with stakeholders, facilitate the review of horticulture teaching curricula in learning institutions to make it more relevant to the rapidly evolving horticulture industry.; To enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, the policy proposes the following interventions: (i) the Government will develop and maintain rural access roads and other roads leading to market outlets to all-weather status to facilitate timely delivery of produce to markets. (ii) the Government will promote community and private initiatives in the construction and maintenance of rural access roads, (iii) levies charged on horticulture will be used to improve and maintain roads in the production areas and (iv) a national marketing strategy of Kenyan horticultural products will be developed in an effort to consolidate existing markets and growth in emerging markets. Monitoring and analysis of trade flows will be encouraged so as to establish Kenya's comparative advantage.; To increase the resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises, the following interventions and project are proposed: (i) the Government will enhance environmental conservation and measures to mitigate the effects of climate change and global warming, (ii) the Government will institute appropriate measures to promote water harvesting, irrigation, recycling of water, and damming, (iii) the Government will enforce anti-pollution regulations, (iv) the Government will enforce laws against encroaching on water catchment areas and riparian land and (v) the policy will promote the use of integrated pest and disease management; In the context of governance, the Horticultural Crops Development Authority (HCDA) is established under the Agriculture Act, (Cap. 318) through the Horticultural Crops Development Authority Order, 1967 (Legal Notice No. 229/1967). HCDA has the mandate to facilitate the development, promotion, coordination and regulation of the horticultural industry in Kenya.
National Horticulture Policy