Use better strategies to boost food security
By Editorial.Team, April 14, 2023Kenyans waited for the onset of March, April, May long rains with bated breath. However, despite the rains being here now, acute food shortage is going to stay with us for a period of time.
An additional one million more Kenyans are projected to face acute hunger in the next two months, that is if the current rains fail to deliver by June of this year.
Therefore, the coming few months are going to be crucial for the government to balance its entire matrix to ensure all the factors that make food accessible for all are addressed, to ease the burden of high food costs on poor Kenyans.
To bring the prices of food down, the government has put in place policies to manage the current runaway food inflation. These measures include offering subsidies on fertilizer to shield farmers from high cost of production, a relief expected to offer a trickle down effect and relieve consumers of high cost of food. The anticipated impact unfortunately will not be felt anytime soon.
It is worth noting that the government’s huge investment in irrigation schemes have not borne much fruit. Even though expected to unshackle the country from overreliance on rain-fed agriculture, these projects nevertheless offer such huge potential to alleviate food shortage in the country.
In order to bring down the cost of food, experts argue that importing food does not help, but only serves to raise the cost of food and enrich the pockets of a few government officials.
To end food woes, the government in the coming budget ought to increase budget allocation to the agriculture sector. The current budget fell short of the required 10 per cent allocation proposed by the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development. Programme for a thriving agricultural sector.
The increased allocation will be directed in managing post-harvest losses by allowing construction of storage facilities. Other services that will require boosting include increasing the number of extension service officers from the current 1:8000 in Kenya to the recommended 1:4000 by Food and Agricultural Organisation.
There ought to be a clear strategy on best ways to communicate the country’s climate smart agriculture policy to farmers. Farmers remain in the dark as climate resilience agriculture issues remain heavily discussed in boardrooms, instead of at farms, where farmers should have already started practicing them.