Agriculture

Agriculture
Theme
Pillar	Economic Development

Agriculture (Kiswahili: Kilimo) is a theme of the Economic Development pillar. It covers food and tree crops, livestock, irrigation and agro-processing across the six coastal counties. Coconut is concentrated at the coast: Kenya has more than 100,000 coconut farmers, about 95 per cent of them at the coast, and nearly 10 million trees. The region is also the site of some of Kenya's largest irrigation projects, including Galana-Kulalu in Kilifi and Tana River, where the government signed a KES 40 billion dam contract at the end of 2025 to irrigate up to 300,000 acres.

What this page is for

This is the shared page for farming on the coast: please add the projects, organisations, data and farmer and stakeholder views you know about, with a source for each.

Agriculture on the coast today

Farming systems follow rainfall inland from the sea. Kilifi's plan describes a wetter coconut and cassava zone near the coast, with fruit trees, vegetables and dairy, giving way inland to livestock and millet country and then to ranching and wildlife. In Kwale, agriculture is one of the main economic activities, and it hosts processors such as Kwale Coconut Processors in Ukunda and the Kwale International Sugar Company at Ramisi.

Tree crops are the focus of revival efforts. Nationally, coconut covered 75,462 hectares and produced 100,200 tonnes in 2025, while cashew covered 26,201 hectares and produced 8,400 tonnes. Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe put cashew output at about 13,000 tonnes a year against installed processing capacity of 45,000 tonnes, and processors in Kilifi said too little raw nut was reaching them. On coconut, the processor Kentaste now buys close to 1.5 million nuts a month from smallholders in Kwale, Lamu and elsewhere.

Kilifi reports maize yields rising from 3 to 14 bags an acre and milk output from 6.3 million to 11.0 million litres. Lamu raised maize production from 32,096 tonnes to 38,382 tonnes by 2022. Tana River completed 12 minor irrigation schemes that added 600 acres, and rice yields rose from 27 to 30 bags a hectare.

Large-scale irrigation is concentrated on the Tana and Galana rivers. The Bura scheme in Tana River produced 14,100 tonnes of rice paddy in 2024/25. At Galana-Kulalu, the private partner Selu Limited harvested its first seed maize in October 2025 from 1,500 acres planted, at 28 to 30 bags an acre. In the Tana Delta, the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority holds 25,875 hectares, of which about 4,700 were under irrigation in 2023.

Plans and policy

Nationally, the Economic Survey reports coconut and cashew among the crops tracked under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda's value chains. In January 2026 the Ministry of Agriculture announced a cashew revival, with the Agriculture and Food Authority estimating up to 350,000 jobs and a master plan to follow. In September 2026 Kagwe presented a Coast Region Economic Revival Strategy with a "Farm to Port" approach, in which Kwale, Kilifi, Taita-Taveta and Tana River focus on production and value addition, with coconut, cashew, cassava, cotton, milk and meat named as drivers.

The county plans for 2023-2027 share a focus on tree crops and value addition. Kilifi's flagship is a KES 500 million fruit processing plant at the Agricultural Training Centre in Mtwapa, to be run as a public-private partnership. Lamu plans to buy 50,000 coconut and 50,000 grafted cashew seedlings, and Mombasa lists a coconut processing plant and fruit and cashew value chains. Taita-Taveta pairs high-value horticulture and irrigation with managing conflict between people and wildlife. Regionally, the Jumuiya ya Kaunti za Pwani counts unlocking value chains among its four thematic areas.

Who is involved

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development leads national policy, with the Agriculture and Food Authority coordinating seedling supply and KALRO's Mtwapa centre breeding improved cashew varieties. The National Irrigation Authority signed the Galana-Kulalu dam contract, the Agricultural Development Corporation holds the Galana-Kulalu ranch title, and the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority runs the Tana Delta land. Each county's agriculture department delivers extension, livestock and veterinary services. Private actors include Selu Limited at Galana-Kulalu, cashew processors East River Foods EPZ and Nuts and More Processing, and the coconut processor Kentaste in Kwale. The Water, Land and Environment and Industry themes overlap with this one.

Open questions

Who owns the land for irrigation? At Galana-Kulalu, Waata and Giriama community petitioners say the ranch boundary was irregularly extended over ancestral land, while the Agricultural Development Corporation says it holds the title; a parliamentary committee has set 17 November 2026 for a survey. In the Tana Delta, residents petitioned Parliament to review the boundary of the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority's land, and the then Cabinet Secretary, Peninah Malonza, opposed it on the ground that it would cut the authority's access to river water.

Will large schemes benefit coastal farmers? The Irrigation Principal Secretary, Ephantus Kimotho, says Galana-Kulalu shows that arid land "can play a key role" in food security. Earlier, Kilifi MPs including Owen Baya and Paul Katana opposed handing the scheme to private firms, wanting it returned to the counties and an audit of KES 7 billion spent.

Can the tree crops recover? The Agriculture and Food Authority's acting director general, Calistus Kundu, blames ageing coconut and cashew trees and low investment for falling output, and processors say supply, not factory capacity, is the constraint. Official figures on cashew output also differ: 8,400 tonnes in the Economic Survey against about 13,000 tonnes cited by the Cabinet Secretary.

Do title deeds help farmers stay on the land? The President says more than 380,000 title deeds have been issued at the coast since August 2022. In Kilifi, Governor Gideon Mung'aro has warned beneficiaries against selling settled land cheaply, and the Kenya Land Alliance's coast chair, Nagib Shamsan, describes some claimants as groups that invade private farms.

Coverage the plan expects

• coconut and cashew value chains
• Tana delta irrigation
• livestock in Tana River and Taita-Taveta
• horticulture
• agro-processing
• land tenure and agriculture
• Galana-Kulalu irrigation scheme
• human-wildlife conflict on farms

Projects

Kenya Cashew Nut Initiative

Tea Value Addition SME Export Enablement Platform

A project page joins this theme by naming it as the theme in its infobox. To start one:

Sources

• Economic Survey 2026, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, 2026 (chapter 7, agriculture)
• Kilifi CIDP 2023-2027, County Government of Kilifi, 2023
• Kwale CIDP 2023-2027, County Government of Kwale, 2023
• Tana River CIDP 2023-2027, County Government of Tana River, 2023
• Lamu CIDP 2023-2027, County Government of Lamu, 2023
• Taita Taveta CIDP 2023-2027, County Government of Taita Taveta, 2023
• CS Kagwe targets cashew revival to create over 350k jobs, The Star, 2026
• Gov't targets five Coast counties to triple food production, Citizen Digital, 2026