Wedoany.com Report-Mar 24, A farmer works in a field benefited from the Lower Nzoia Irrigation project in Siaya County, western Kenya, on Feb. 20, 2025. Built by China's Sino Hydro Company Limited, the Lower Nzoia Irrigation project is a national project domiciled in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. Its implementation started in June 2018, with the goal of mitigating floods and increasing the acreage of land under irrigation in western Kenya.

One of the major tributaries that drain into Lake Victoria, Africa's largest freshwater lake, the Nzoia River, which has a length of 257 kilometers, is a source of livelihood for millions of people in western Kenya.

The project's first phase will be completed in May 2025, putting 10,000 acres under irrigation on the river's left bank and targeting 12,600 farmers as beneficiaries, according to the National Irrigation Authority, a state agency.

The second phase will bring an additional 10,000 acres under irrigation on the right side of the river, with beneficiaries expected to put 5,000 acres under high-value cash crops and 5,000 acres under rice and other food crops, generating an estimated 4.8 billion shillings (37 million U.S. dollars) in annual revenue, according to the agency.