Here is why your block of ugali could get smaller

Ugali

Kenyans should brace for a tough 2018 in which households are likely to have less of their favourite meal - ugali.

According to a study by Tegemeo Institute, an agricultural policy think-tank affiliated to Egerton University, production of maize - a cereal used to make the country’s staple dish, ugali - is projected to decline by up to 20 per cent.

This follows late onset, depressed and erratic patterns of the March-April-May long rains in the country’s food basket counties of Narok, Nakuru, Trans Nzoia and Uasin Gishu.

The prolonged drought that dragged into June as well as the spillover effects of an attack by fall armyworms, which devastated large tracts of maize plantations in the country, is also tipped to aggravate the food security situation in the country.

The pest invaded about 800,000 acres under the crop, thanks to a tepid response from authorities.

Drought and the fall pest’s menace also saw acreage dedicated to maize reduce from 1.8 million acres to 1.5 million. The reduction was also due to the conversion of some of the crops to silage.

“We will get lower production, lower than even last year’s,” said Kevin Onyango, a research analyst at Tegemeo Institute during the launch of the Food Situation Assessment and Prospects Report in Nairobi on Thursday.

Last year, close to four million Kenyans faced starvation following a dry spell that affected harvests of crops and saw livestock die for lack of water and pasture.

The study’s findings come at a time when the Government has announced that it will buy maize from local farmers at a cost of Sh6 billion through its Strategic Grain Reserve.

“To boost our food security and sustain affordable price for maize flour, the Government will buy under the Strategic Food Reserve, all the maize offered for sale by our farmers during this 2017-2018 season,” said President Uhuru Kenyatta when he officially opened this year’s Nairobi International Trade Fair on Wednesday.

“For this purpose, we have programmed spending Sh6 billion,” added the President.

It was not immediately clear how much the Government would buy the grain from farmers.

Subsidy programme

Experts from Tegemeo, however, do not expect the price to go beyond Sh3,000 for a 90kg bag.

It will also be interesting to see how the Government will go about buying maize from small-holder farmers through the initiative given that for long, middlemen have been the main buyers of their crop.

Large-scale farmers, on the other hand, sell to millers and the Government through the National Produce and Cereals Board (NCPB).

Currently, the Government has been buying maize, both locally and imported, at Sh3,600 per 90kg bag and selling it to millers at Sh2,300 through the maize price subsidy programme. This has seen the price of a 2kg packet of maize flour come down to Sh90 from Sh140 while a kilo of the staple has been going for Sh47. 

On April 13, the Agriculture Ministry in a Gazette Notice authorised duty-free importation of white, non-GMO, maize by private sector agencies and individuals.

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