Queen Maxima Advocates for Climate-Smart Agriculture in Kisumu Visit

Kisumu – Her Majesty Queen Maxima of the Netherlands is promoting climate-smart agriculture as a way to bolster food security in Kisumu, during her visit in her role as the United Nations Secretary General’s special advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA). Addressing the issue of climate change and its impact on farming, she emphasized the need for proper funding to make climate-resilient agriculture a reality.

According to a new release by Kenya News Agency, Queen Maxima spoke about leveraging digital finance platforms to fund this agricultural initiative during a courtesy meeting with Kisumu Governor Prof. Anyang Nyong’o. She noted that digital financial services have reached 80% of the population in the country, and the next step should be to facilitate farmers’ transition to climate-smart agriculture through these platforms.

During her tour of Kisumu, the Queen visited projects funded by the UN and the Dutch Government, such as the Vei Waterworks sanitation project in Manyatta and the Hello Tractor Project in Rabuor. She stated that partnerships like these would continue to be strengthened to support further development in the area.

Governor Nyong’o lauded the collaboration between his county and the Dutch Government. He pointed out the significance of the Manyatta project, which provides residents with clean water and repurposes faecal sludge to make fertilizer. The Governor also highlighted the Hello Tractor Project, an agri-tech tractor sharing application that has connected farmers through the internet, facilitating a shift from traditional farming methods to more technologically advanced practices.

Queen Maxima stressed that focus must shift to how farmers can gain from digital financial services to embark on climate-smart agriculture and thereby enhance food security. “We shall look at how best we can support the digital finance services to be able to convey this,” she said.