The vagaries of climate change portend a bleak future for millions of Kenyans as a forecast by a United Nations Humanitarian agency shows 3.6 million Kenyans will be in need of food relief by August this year.
Kenya, and indeed the region have experienced long periods of drought over the last two years, and whenever the rains come, they have not been sufficient to aid sufficient food production.
Food security has therefore become a challenge for the Government, currently struggling with the shortage of maize facing the country.
Government policies, despite weather forecasts by the meteorological department that should assist it in planning, have fallen short in their endeavour to preclude the unpleasant situation starring millions of Kenyans in the face.
Kenya’s traditional bread basket, the Rift Valley, has experienced a serious drop in food production as farmers get disenchanted by Government policies. First, a government that takes food production seriously should, when weather conditions are adverse, consider giving subsidies to farmers. At some point the cost of fertiliser had soared to Sh4,500 per bag of 25kg fertiliser, but when Government intervened following a public outcry, the commodity did not only become scarce, the quality was observed to be wanting. This has been vindicated by new revelations that DAP fertiliser contains higher amounts of the dangerous chemical cadmium. The quality of seed in the market has also raised some questions.
Farmers have complained that the Government buys their produce at prices that do not give returns on their investments.
In 2014 for instance, after the Government failed to purchase maize from farmers citing lack of funds, farmers in the Rift Valley had no option but to sell their maize to cartels at Sh1,500 per 90 kilogramme bag, way below the Government offer of Sh2,300.
One way of encouraging more farmers is through seed and fertiliser subsidies. There ought to be a shift, as well, from over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture to irrigation schemes. The problem of food shortages needs to be addressed immediately.
