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Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Food Security: Private Firms Flock Galana Kulalu Irrigation Project

The Galana Kulalu Food Security project, located in Kilifi and Tana River Counties, is attracting private investors in a Public Private Partnership model.

The 10,000-acre model farm is complete, and expansion on an additional 10,000 acres is underway, carried out by Twiga Foods Limited through its large-scale commercial farming partner Selu Limited.


According to Water, Sanitation and Irrigation Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome, the 10,000 acre model farm is complete and expansion on an additional 10,000 acres is underway and is being carried out by Twiga Foods Limited through its large scale commercial farming partner Selu limited.

“This particular project faced some teething problems including the politicization of the project and Twiga foods have started the first crop which is almost ready for harvest. Twiga will take 20,000 acres and we have enough water to irrigate 10,000 acres immediately and we are on plans to improve the harvesting to a larger scale,” she said.

The project faced some teething problems, including politicization, but Twiga Foods has started the first crop, which is almost ready for harvest.

The government, through the National Irrigation Authority (NIA), is putting up infrastructure to enable private sector investment in irrigation. The project has at least 300,000 acres of arable land, and the government is addressing water pollution issues.

Initially, when NIA conducted the pilot project after the Israel firm Green Arava left, an acre was producing 32 bags of maize per acre. Twiga Foods is now producing between 45 to 50 bags per acre, with the goal of producing 45 to 50 bags per acre.

The Principal Secretary in the State Department for Irrigation, Mr. Ephantus Kimotho Kimani, said most investors were inquiring about the type of soil and availability of water, which the government is already addressing.

Mr. Peter Njonjo, founder of Selu Limited, said his firm anticipates producing at least 2 million bags of maize every year from 20,000 acres and creating employment opportunities of about 2,000 direct employment.

The maize crop at Galana Kulalu matures in 105 days, so with irrigation, the farm can do three seasons of rotational farming every year. With high yields, the project has the potential to create a huge transformation in maize production.

Mr. Nicholas Ambanya, head of farming at Selu Limited, said the firm is doing trials on different maize varieties to develop a standard protocol for the 20,000 acres later on.

The trial runs for three and a half months, with the first planting being 73 days old. By the end of October, the firm will have a final standard production blueprint that will be implemented across the other acres of land.

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