By Issa Hussein - Reporter
Kenya, June 8, 2026 - Kenya’s agricultural research must shift from the laboratory to the global marketplace, while simultaneously restoring degraded soils and cutting emissions from farms, scientists and business leaders said today during the 2nd KALRO Scientific Conference and Innovation Expo in Nairobi.
Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) President Dr. Erick Rutto who presided the event challenged the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) to rethink its role, saying research must directly fuel industry and help farmers meet massive international demand.
In an address that bridged the gap between scientific research and global commerce, Dr. Rutto celebrated that agricultural exports brought in Ksh 700 billion last year, but painted a stark picture of massive, unmet international demand and called for a radical shift from subsistence farming to high-tech, aggregated agricultural production.
“His core message to KALRO and the scientific community was clear: research must directly fuel industry, and industry must equip farmers to meet the exacting standards and massive volumes required by global markets,” the statement from KALRO noted.
Drawing from direct market intelligence gathered across the globe, Dr. Rutto highlighted staggering export opportunities that Kenya is currently missing. He cited recent requests from international markets including an order for 5 million goats, noting that international buyers require massive, continuous shipments.
He challenged researchers to develop breeding and production programs capable of scaling local herds to meet these multimillion-head targets.
Using coffee as a prime example, Dr. Rutto illustrated the mismatch between Kenya’s agricultural potential and its actual output. While Kenyan coffee is highly competitive in quality, the country produced roughly 49,000 metric tons last year paling in comparison to regional neighbours like Ethiopia, which produced 600,000 metric tons, and Uganda with 400,000 metric tons.
He warned that Kenya has historically focused too many resources on policy and governance, neglecting the actual industrialization and massive scaling of agriculture.
To make Kenyan agricultural products competitive internationally, Dr. Rutto said they must first be viable domestically. The KNCCI, he added, is aggressively lobbying for tax harmonization across all counties to ease the burden on farmers and exporters.
Closing his address, Dr. Rutto offered a direct, strategic partnership between the KNCCI and KALRO. With a network of over 60,000 businesses and vast international reach, the Chamber of Commerce is perfectly positioned to commercialize KALRO’s research, he said.
He invited the researchers to actively participate in the Chamber’s bi-weekly county business forums to showcase their technologies, ensuring that innovations like Aflasafe, improved seed varieties, and climate-smart dairy solutions are rapidly monetized and deployed to the farmers who need them most.
Meanwhile, keynote speaker Dr. Boaz Waswa a scientist specializing soil health challenged stakeholders to rethink the future of agriculture through sustainable ecological innovations that build resilience while advancing low-carbon development.
He noted that while smallholder farmers produce nearly 75 percent of Africa's food, they continue to grapple with declining soil fertility, land degradation, climate shocks, and increasing pressure to meet rising food demand.
Dr. Waswa emphasized that the future of agriculture depends on balancing adaptation and mitigation building resilience while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from crop and livestock systems.
He highlighted integrated crop-livestock systems, circular agriculture, and improved productivity as practical pathways towards achieving this goal.
“Healthy soils are the foundation of sustainable agriculture,” Dr. Waswa said, and called for integrated soil fertility management, data-driven decision-making, and the adoption of bundled innovations rather than isolated solutions.
According to Dr. Waswa, the solutions already exist, from agroforestry and pastoral systems to improved forages and renewable energy technologies such as solar irrigation.
“What is needed now is stronger collaboration, supportive policies, climate financing, and meaningful co-creation with farmers,” he said.
The conference brought together researchers, policymakers, private sector players and farmer representatives to examine how science and commerce can jointly transform agriculture, raise productivity, and position Kenya to feed itself and supply global markets.
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