TURKANA, KENYA: Poor infrastructure, corruption and inadequate agricultural policies have led to high food prices and an increase in food insecurity in the country.
According to data from the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Bank and the Economist Intelligence Unit, Kenya has remained stagnant in its efforts to make quality food accessible to the majority of its citizens.
The study notes that the country is ranked 79 out of 107 countries in terms of food security, with Kenya lagging behind countries like Ghana, Uganda and Cote d’Ivoire.
This paints a grim picture of the country’s agricultural industry, which is considered the mainstay of the economy employing close to 80 per cent of Kenya’s labour force. Titled Global Food Security Index, 2013, the study ranked food inflation of 107 countries in the world looking at several matrices, including food availability, affordability and quality and safety.
Kenya scored below 40 per cent in all three parameters and an overall score of 37 per cent.
“Global food commodity prices rose slightly in the last quarter of 2013, decreasing food affordability in the majority of the countries covered in the index,” read the report in part. “The largest drops in food security happened in countries experiencing political violence – Syria and Sudan, where food availability is at its lowest because of the sustained military conflict,” stated the report.
Agricultural policies
Sub-Saharan Africa was singled out as the lowest scoring region with only two countries, Botswana and South Africa, emerging at the top half of the index. None of the East African countries experienced an increase in food security over the last quarter of 2013, an indication that the region needs to re-invent its agricultural policies.
Kenya scored worst in public expenditure on research and development in the agricultural sector. This is in tandem with estimates on budgetary allocations to the agricultural sector, which have been significantly low over the past decade. In the 2013/2014 financial year, the Treasury reduced the budget allocation for agriculture by 29 per cent, with significant monies being channelled to famine, agri-business and an ambitious plan to put one million acres under irrigation. The Government is hoping to reclaim huge tracts of land rendered unusable due to erosion and promote technology-aided agriculture, with Sh8 billion allocated to new and on-going irrigation projects in Bura, Hola, South West Kano, Ahero, Mwea and Pekerra.
However, according to the new study, poor infrastructure, corruption and inadequate agricultural policies have led to high food prices, signalling prolonged food insecurity in the country.
The report further states that Kenya scores poorly in nutritional standards, sufficiency of food supply, proportion of population under global poverty line and political stability risk.
Kenya, however, scored above average in agricultural import tariffs, urban absorption capacity, food safety and presence of food safety net programmes.
According to Agriculture Livestock & Fisheries Cabinet Secretary Felix Koskei, the country is lagging behind in food production, forcing grain imports from other sources despite the ability of Kenyans to grow their own food.
“Kenya is producing between 37 and 40 million bags of maize against a national requirement of 42 million bags annually with frequent drought, the high cost of farm inputs and poor storage often named as the common causes of food insecurity,” said Koskei at a function earlier this week.
