KENYA – Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives has launched the AFA Integrated Management Information System (AFA-IMIS) that automates its service delivery and business processes.
The online system developed by Agriculture and Food Authority of Kenya (AFA) with US$1.37 million funding from Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) through TradeMark East Africa was launched by Kenya’s Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya.
The platform aims at providing efficient and transparent service to farmers and its stakeholders by reducing both the time and cost of acquiring services or products from the Agriculture and Food Authority of Kenya (AFA), the government regulatory agency.
“This system will help us serve the agriculture sector well. As AFA we are not only concerned with food that is coming into Kenya, but also food that is being produced in Kenya.”
Director General of AFA – Kello Harsama
It offers import and export services covering the certification and licensing of trade in cash crops including tea, coffee, nuts, oils, sugar, horticulture, flowers, cotton, sisal, pyrethrum, food crops and other industrial crops.
This will make it easier, faster and convenient to access services from AFA and its Directorates, complementing the agency’s commitment to ensure safe food is marketed within and out of Kenya.
“This system will help us serve the agriculture sector well. As AFA we are not only concerned with food that is coming into Kenya, but also food that is being produced in Kenya.
“Soon we will start surveillance on food grown in Kenya like tomatoes, to enforce regulations on pesticide use and ensure food supplied to markets from our farms is fit for human consumption,” said Director General of AFA Kello Harsama.
According to AFA which is charged to sustainably develop and promote scheduled crops value chains, the automation will reduce the time and costs related to regulation and compliance of import and export of agricultural plant products, by almost half.
Also, services related to application and processing of licensing will be done online.
With the platform, AFA targets to reduce incidences of loss and duplication of records and reduce lack of accountability of crop production by stakeholders.
The system will collect relevant data that will inform better decision making in the regulation and administration of agricultural commodities.
Farmers and stakeholders will access important information from the portal, including that relating to imports and exports also covering production, processing, and trading in agricultural commodities regulated by AFA directorates. This will eliminate a key barrier to trade – access and availability of information, said AFA.
AFA IMIS has integrated payment platforms which provides guarantee of services through end-to-end processing of applications.
The agency clarified that 4500 permits/licenses and certificates have been issued through the system since its operationalization started in January 2020
The launch was also graced by the Royal Danish Embassy Counsellor Morgen Strunge Larsen, TMEA Senior Director for Trade Environment Mr. Alban Odhiambo and TMEA Country Director Mr. Ahmed Farah HSC.
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