Kenya, Africa Support on development of baseline and real-time data tools for National Taskforce on Horticulture Kenya

The Kenya National Horticulture Task Force was created in 2004 in response to challenges in the international markets. It was a multi-stakeholder interactive and consensus-building forum with representation from public and private sector stakeholders in the horticulture sub-sector, promoting private-public sector dialogue. The major goal being to assure Kenya’s horticultural produce complies with market requirements and sustains its reputation as a leading grower and exporter of horticultural produce. The taskforce was involved in activities of capacity building; accreditation of business support facilities; awareness creation, development of common strategies; risk assessment; adoption of international codes of practices and regulations and market diversification.

However, it is noted that there still exists a huge potential for the growth of this industry within the regional and domestic markets yet this has been held back by a number of challenges that include:
a) Inadequate coordination of horticulture, development partners and other stakeholders at national and country level;
b) Weak institutions and associations across horticulture value chains;
c) Invalid, unreliable data and inadequate market infrastructure and supply chain for appropriate handling of horticulture produce from farm to the markets.