NAIROBI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Tuesday launched a five-year plan to boost food and nutrition security amid a severe drought that has affected more than 3 million people.

Francis Owino, the principal secretary of the State Department of Crops Development and Agricultural Research, said the Agriculture Sector Institutional Capacity Strengthening Plan (ICSP) was developed through a multi-agency task team.

"The plan has three components critical in addressing systemic bottlenecks constraining Kenya's ability to achieve food and nutrition security," Owino told journalists in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

He said that the plan provides for a leadership program to build transformational skills for national and county leaders who will be equipped with adequate hands-on skills that will be transferred to agricultural value chain players. It also provides a roadmap to build capacity and revitalize agricultural extension services across the country.

"The plan will also harmonize curricula and qualification frameworks for agricultural vocational training to increase the talent pool of skilled farmers," he observed, noting that the plan also contains components to address the low participation of youth in agriculture through prioritizing public investments in agriculture.

"The plan also spearheads a cultural shift in agriculture through invigorating those areas that will take agriculture in Kenya to a more modern and commercial scale with the small producer at the center of the transformation," Owino said. - Xinhua