Why agriculture is a do or die for Kenya in global trade talks

Representatives of ‘Our World Is Not For Sale Campaign’ (from left) Biraj Patnaik, India, Justus Lavi, Kenya and USA’s Deborah James during a press conference warning that the WTO talks could push world’s poorest into more misery. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD]

NAIROBI: Sixty-year-old Justus Lavi could be the harshest critic of the World Trade Organisation’s meeting in Nairobi, whose likely outcomes he thinks will devastate small scale farmers in Kenya.

Ravages of a liberal market will not only kill peasant farmers but also the few processing factories across Africa, says Lavi who is the National General Secretary of Kenya Small Scale Farmers Forum with membership drawn from 23 districts.