What Is The Most Common Industry In Kenya?

By Author: Amar Shah
Total Articles: 215
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Kenya has a wide variety of industries that vary depending mostly on different geographical areas of the country. Among the many industrial activities, Agriculture is the most common, practiced across almost all areas of the country.

Agricultural activities in Kenya are for both subsistence and large scale production, for local consumption as well as export. Among the major activities coffee and tea farming top the list in the Central region as well as parts of the Rift Valley region. Cereal production of wheat, maize, millet, sorghum among others, cotton and pyrethrum are the major agricultural activities in Rift valley province. Western province concentrates on fish farming due to the presence of Lake Victoria in the region while the Eastern region of the country is known for honey production.

Horticulture is a major part of the agricultural sector, especially the flower farming that is the major agricultural activity in Naivasha and parts of Central province producing flowers for export. A lot of fruits and vegetables fall in this bracket, the most common being nuts, apples and grapes.

There are ...
... companies in Kenya that process fully, most of the agricultural products; the finished products are then exported and this is one way to ensure that the agricultural sector fully benefits farmers directly among other benefits like job creation in the areas where these factories are located. The major companies process tea and coffee and they are concentrated in Central and the Rift Valley areas which buy tea and coffee from the farmers besides owning extensive coffee and tea bushes. Other major companies are animal products companies like beef and dairy products supplied locally and abroad, after full processing into meat, bacon, cheese, milk among a whole range of others.

Despite the boom of the agricultural sector in Kenya, it is faced with a wide range of challenges. One of the major challenges is poor infrastructure, in almost all regions that practice extensive farming. Bad roads that are rendered impassible in bad weather and lack of alternative means of communication are a major hurdle for the farmers because they therefore have no means to deliver their products to their respective markets causing major losses especially with the perishable goods like fruits and vegetables and sometimes flowers.

Another major challenge is lack of marketing strategies in the remote areas of the country, so that their products end up without established markets, more so for the products that do not seem to contribute largely to the agricultural sector.

The recent instability of the economy not only here in our country but also in other major countries that boast of the world's biggest economies is a great challenge as well. As a result of this instability, the agricultural sector like all other sectors is destabilized suffering major losses that trickle down to the individual farmers who are often at the greatest disadvantage.

In light of all these challenges, the Kenyan government has in the recent past come up with different strategies to overcome them like aggressive marketing of Kenya's agricultural products by the Ministry of Agriculture, incentives to farmers like reduced prices for agricultural inputs and higher prices for their products.

The agricultural sector is a huge boost to the Kenyan economy and it therefore requires a lot of upgrading and government support for full benefits.