Victory Farms which operates fish cages in Lake Victoria and Sunculture have been announced as among the beneficiaries of a $5.1 million grant from USAID to aid in expanding their business activities while working towards addressing the country’s food insecurity challenges.
Under the initiative which is a partnership between USAID, Prosper Africa, and Feed the Future Initiative, Victory Farms was given a $150,000 grant while other beneficiaries such as Regen, an organic fertiliser producer received $1.2 million , Sunculture – which makes solar irrigation systems ($800,000), iProcure – an agricultural procurement platform ($1.2 million) and Afrimac Nut Company – an exporter of locally processed macadamia nuts and oil ($450,000). While Exotic-EPZ Kenya a processor and exporter of Macadamia nuts received $1 million and Goshen Farm Exporters received $300,000.
The agencies indicated that the grants to the private companies will “support access to agricultural inputs and production technologies while expanding Kenyan value-added processing and the export of products like macadamia nuts and dried fruit”, as well as boost incomes for over 1 million Kenyan farmers.
USAID’s mission director for Kenya David Gosney, had this to say, “This comes at a time when many of these farmers are faced with recurrent drought and significant price increases especially in essential commodities that has been driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
Mr Gosney said the seven companies selected for this grant were chosen because they are “investing in solutions to improve the lives of Kenyan farmers and to create new jobs and new economic opportunities”.