The government has acquired three medium level fishing boats at a cost of sh 60 Million in the latest government's plan to help fishermen exploit the deep-sea fishing.

Mining and blue economy cabinet secretary Salim Mvurya said the pilot project is targeting fishermen in Lamu, Mombasa and Kwale counties where the boats will be handed over to County BMUs.

 “We have acquired three medium level boats  which have cost sh 60 million; we have one in Lamu, Kwale and Mombasa ,as a ministry we are committed in the next few months we will equip those boats then hand them over to county government BMUs so that they can facilitate fishing in the medium deep sea,” said Mvurya.

Mvurya said through the cooperation of coastal counties, they have identified landing sites that will be installed with cooling systems to facilitate value addition for their dilly catch. He said the government is working with the private sector to operationalise the Liwatoni fish landing site.

Speaking in Mombasa during the official opening of an induction workshop bringing together Agriculture County executive Committee Members and Chief Officers asked the county governments to tap into the blue economy opportunities that have remained untapped.

“We want to invite the private sector in areas of value addition of fish products. We want to facilitate our fisheries so that they can delay the sales and store the fish and sale when prices are good,” said Mvurya.

 In addition the Cs said small ports will be expanded to provide for handling fishing boats to enable fishermen to have a docking place.Mvurya also launched a 250 million dollars national value chain development project that will be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and is funded by the World Bank.

The project will be implemented in the next five years in all the 47 counties. It will help farmers in value chain projects. It also targets increasing market participation for targeted farmers.

Council of governors Agriculture chair Ken Lusaka who also doubles as Bungoma governor said county governors and central government should harmoniously work to deliver the best for the government.

He challenges counties to direct 10 percent of their budgets to Agriculture in line with the Maputo declaration. He called for good entrenchment of good governance to help leverage on Agriculture.

"We call upon CECM's to be stewards of the governor's to achieve the purpose of the devolution,” said Lusaka.

Lamu governor Issa Timamy who also doubles as the chair of the council of governor’s Blue economy chairman said the blue economy has a great potential to the growth of the country’s economy thus needs a lot of focus.

"There is growing appreciation that it's critical to leverage on the blue economy for the growth of the country's GDP, it was well thought to have a fully fledged docket to champion blue economy affairs in the country, “said Timmamy.

He said Counties are relevant in utilization of the blue economy resources which have largely remained untapped. He said there is a need for enough budgets, skills, labour and research for the blue economy to be fully realized.

The council of governors COG executive officer CEO Mary Mwiti called on the county government to embrace professionalism on all deliverables to be able to achieve the desired development.

"We ask you as you embark on a count to embrace innovation and accountability the resources that have been allocated to the counties,” said Mwiti.

The meeting brought together Chairs of Agriculture and Blue economy from the council of governors and county chief’s officers and CEC's in the respective dockets.

“I want to ask the County leadership to strengthen county policy and legislative processes to` support the much-needed growth and development for the agriculture and blue economy sectors,” Mwiti added.