Kenya Scales Up Edible Oil Crop Farming to Slash Imports and Strengthen Rural Livelihoods
In a determined push to curb Kenya's soaring edible oil import bill, the country's Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) has intensified nationwide efforts to boost domestic production of oil crops such as sunflower, canola, soybean, and coconut. At the heart of the strategy is the Sh981 million Edible Oil Crops Promotion Project (EOCPP), launched in July 2023 and set to run through 2028. Co-funded by the National Treasury (Sh400 million) and AFA's Nuts & Oil Crops Directorate (Sh581 million), the project aspires to more than double local oil output, from a baseline of just 34 percent of the 900,000-tonne annual demand to 50 percent by 2028.