Creating quality jobs in the agriculture in Kenyan market - What it takes
To create worthy agriculture jobs in Kenya, we must develop our upstream (i.e inputs such as seeds,
fertilizers, machinery and technology) and downstream (value addition) and
reduce emphasis on the midstream (food production). In Kenya today, anything
about agriculture revolves around food production - on the farm.
Agriculture is a critical sector of
Kenya’s economy contributing directly up to 26% of country’s total gross
domestic product and another 27% through linkages with other sectors. It is
also estimated that the sector employs more than 40% of the total
population and 70% of Kenya's rural people.
There is not clear data
regarding the level of income of rural population employed by agriculture but
it is estimated that the greatest majority are wage earner. Level of
income is a very hard data to obtain mainly because informal farmers, mostly
smallholder do not keep records. It is equally very hard to estimate because
smallholder farmers practice mixed farming which renders generalization and
extrapolation impossible.
Having said that, I am strongly
convinced that the 70% of farmers in rural areas live below the poverty
line or slightly above, at least from how I have seen them conducting their
lives and how much they complain when I meet them.
Looking at the numbers above, it is
clear that agriculture is the mainstay of Kenya's economy given its contribution
to GDP and the number of employment opportunities it provides.
But one question we need to
ask ourselves is about the quality of jobs created in our agriculture sector
today across all value chains. The answer is a no-brainer - underemployment and
low-quality jobs, because most employees of the sector are wage earners.
History of agriculture in developed economies puts it clear that quality jobs
in the agriculture sector cannot be created on the farm (midstream) but rather
in a dynamic upstream activities (inputs) and downstream activities (value
addition). Everyone will agree with me that almost 100% of smallholder farming
in Kenya starts and end in the midstream-Subsistence farming in other words.
Industrialization in the avenue to creating worthy agriculture jobs in Kenya
Kenya must industrialize the
agriculture sector by building capacity of local factories to manufacture
agricultural inputs and to process produce for value addition. With
industrialization, value chains become complete, from acquisition of
inputs to delivery of finished product to the end consumer. A complete value
chain opens door for many players hence increasing opportunities for
employment. Industrialization can be a step by step thing. For example, the
following can be done to kick-off:
- Integration
of smallholder framers into formal supply chains for them to benefit
from economies of scale. A functioning supply chain can employ a lot of
people with quality jobs,
- Increased production of
high-value crops. This may offer incentives to entrepreneurs to invest in
processing and value addition,
- Mechanization: One tractor can
effectively render 200 people jobless on the farm. Only
mechanization can relieve the manpower from the farm to the factories. If
people continue to be hooked up on the farm to provide muscle power, there
shall never be enough manpower to work in the downstream food processing,
manufacturing, logistics, etc.
A case in point, one tractor can
replace 200 drudges from the farm, but in return it can create over 30 quality
jobs in manufacturing, logistics, marketing, after-sales, servicing and
parts.
In summary, for quality
jobs to created in the agriculture sector in Kenya, all stakeholders,
development partners and especially the government must focus their efforts on
liberating the muscle power held on the farms by putting more efforts and
resources in other areas of value chains outside production activities on the
farm.
Joseph Wambugu is a consultant on
agribusiness
Follow him on LinkedIn
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