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World Bank urges Kenya to revive agriculture to reduce poverty

Xinhua, March 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

The World Bank on Tuesday urged Kenya to focus on reviving the agricultural sector in order to reduce poverty levels.

World Bank Country Director for Kenya Diarietou Gaye said agriculture is the largest employer in the country, and therefore improvements in productivity will have a huge impact in reducing poverty levels.

"Reviving agriculture remains the pathway for poverty reduction," Gaye said during the launch of the Kenya Country Economic Memorandum: From Growth to Jobs and Shared Prosperity.

The report, published by the World Bank, analyses major sectors of the country's economy.

The report says Kenya's growth model has been well-regarded for a number of reasons. The country has never sought or received debt relief, but has opted for better economic policy -- raising revenues, liberalizing trade and the forex market.

The report says, however, that agriculture's share in GDP declined from 26.5 percent in 2006 to 22.0 percent in 2014, while manufacturing stagnated at 11.8 percent of GDP on average during the same period.

Gaye said the performance of the agricultural sector has been disappointing due to its vulnerability to weather shocks.

According to the country director, nations that lifted many people put of poverty have relied on improving agricultural sector productivity.

She noted that Kenya on average allocates five percent of its national budget to agriculture against the ten percent it has committed.

The bank noted that improvements in agriculture would enable a labor to make a transition to more productive sectors of the economy.

Gaye urged the government to prioritize agricultural development so that Kenya creates job opportunities for the growing working age population.

The report also notes that the growth has not been inclusive in Kenya: poverty, unemployment, and informality remain prevalent and the economic growth has been uneven and volatility is high.

The Country Economic Memorandum is a strategic World Bank product that analyzes key aspects of a country's economic development with the main aim of providing an integrated and long-term perspective of the country's development priorities. Endit