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The Nairobian

School feeding plan boosts small-holder farmers

Business

By Standard Reporter | Sep 15, 2014

Farmer harvesting maize crop. The school feeding programme buys foodstuff from small-scale farmers. [PHOTO: COURTESY]

Nairobi; Kenya: The transition of the school feeding project from World Food Programme (WFP) to the Government has come with good tidings for smallholder farmers. The move has revitalised subsistence farming across the arid and semi-arid areas. Smallholder farmers, hitherto largely exploited by middlemen and production and marketing forces that demand large economies of scales, can today happily trade with the Government, get paid promptly and improve their lot.

The Government took charge of school feeding in arid and semi-arid areas from the WFP in 2009. The first transfer involved 540,000 pupils. The State then initiated the now popular Home Grown School Feeding Programme, where cash is transferred to schools to buy foodstuff from local smallholder farmers.

Each year, 50,000 pupils are transferred from the WFP to the Government. The programme has proved a masterstroke in economic stimulus and besides, schools receive fresh food. It is a “win-win situation” as SNV Country Director, Harm Duiker, puts it. “Initially, it was not easy for farmers to access this lucrative market, since Government procurement system is structured and operates under the stringent Public Procurement and Oversight Act. This meant farmers at their individual capacities, could hardly access this market,” he said. In 2011, SNV in Kenya, with support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation started to implement the Procurement Governance for Home Grown School Feeding Project. In a pilot project that engaged about 12,000 farmers, they started participating in this procurement. The farmers are organised in associations with a legal persona to do business with the Government.

The associations also give farmers a voice in the market. There are over 100 farmers-based organsations in countites of Laikipia, Kilifi, Lamu, Narok, Kitui, Makueni, Elegeyo-Marakwet and Baringo. In the current financial year, Treasury allocated about Sh800 million to the plan.