The government has cut ties with the Israel firm the was to model Galana-Kulalu Irrigation scheme and awarded the tender to Irrico Kenya to complete the project
The Sh797 million tender for the new contractor will see the rehabilitation of the water intake at the farm and installation of additional pumps to cater for the entire model farm.
The Galana project was supposed to have been opened up for large scale production under the Private Public Partnership by now as the model farm, which is a demonstration block that covers 10,000 acres and was to be completed by 2018.
About 7,000 acres have been cultivated to date with 3,000 acres put under crop last year.
The NIA said production of the current season is ongoing with 5,100 acres expected to be put under crop by next April.
Top government officials who visited the farm last week said they would allow private investors to invest in the farm next year once the model farm has been completed.
Earlier the Israel government said in March it had started talks with the national and county governments of Tana River and Kilifi to have their contractor resume work at the Galana-Kulalu irrigation scheme.
However, the government insisted that it would not reinstate their contract as the contractor had demonstrated failure in the completion of the project.
The dispute between irrigation agency and Green Arava arose from the amount that the contractor claimed to be owed by the NIA, which says that it was far too much from the actual figure. The contractor claimed that NIA owed them Sh1 billion, but the agency claimed it owed the contractor Sh200 million.
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