Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, in his article in The Standard on Wednesday defended the Galana-Kukalu irrigation project, saying it would help Kenya meet an annual deficit of 10 million bags of maize annually.
The Galana-Kulalu is indeed a costly project involving multinational companies.
Wamalwa hails from Trans Nzoia County, which has potential to produce enough maize for local demand and surplus for export.
Why has maize production declined in the North Rift? Basically the cost of production has gone up drastically. The cost of diesel and fertiliser has skyrocketed and the prices offered for maize have been dismal.
Just before the maize harvesting season, millers and other grain traders are given leeway to import the produce. And when farmers harvest their grain, they are forced to sell at throwaway prices to the middlemen due to lack of market.
Grain farmers in Kenya are totally discouraged by Government policies. The Galana-Kulalu project is therefore designed to benefit multinational players and the political class at the expense of farmers.
The Trans Nzoia governor has been encouraging farmers to shift from maize to sugar cane while his counterpart in Uasin Gishu has been persuading farmers to shift from maize to other crops.
Indeed the Galana-Kulalu irrigation project will become a white elephant in the long run. I suspect the idea of irrigation as an alternative for rain-fed agriculture in Kenya did not originate from our bureaucrats and the political class.
John Perkins in his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man reveals the fact that “many of the so-called experts advising governments of poor nations are conmen and women designed to mislead nations into making horrible economic blunders”.
First, Third World nations are persuaded to invest in projects that cost billions upon billions but eventually translate into massive losses to their countries, thus making poor nations debt-ridden and debt-burdened. The result is obvious international players will take control of such nations and will thus exploit their resources and manipulate them.
It is a paradox that farmers who have the capacity to produce enough to feed the nation and export the surplus are the most discouraged lot.
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