Institute warns on maize output

Kenyans should not expect much relief on high food prices despite a number of measures the Government has put in place to address the situation.

According to Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, the country will continue experiencing acute shortage of maize flour, sugar and milk.

Dismissing the flour subsidy that has seen consumers buy a two-kilogramme packet at Sh90 as a “short term response,” the Egerton-affiliated policy think tank blamed the Government for glossing over the real causes of the current food crisis.

The Government, said the institution’s researchers during a press conference in Nairobi yesterday, is ill-prepared to comprehensively address the food shortage whose genesis is a debilitating drought that is ravaging the Horn of Africa.

On maize production, the researchers painted a gloomy picture in which the lacklustre performance will continue for the better part of 2017.

“The rains are depressed already. The early harvests we expect to get from South Rift are also going to be affected,” said Milton Were, a senior research fellow at Tegemeo.