We have enough food, Ruto assures Kenyans

By Ramadhan Rajab

The Government has disputed claims of a looming food crisis, saying there is plenty for everyone.

Agriculture Minister William Ruto dismissed the fears and assured the Government’s food reserves had sufficient supplies to feed the country throughout the year.

Earlier, Tegemeo Institute researchers had described the country’s food situation as precarious due to erratic rains.

But the minister, yesterday said the short rains had been sufficient and had positive results in Central, Eastern and Coast provinces, where the Government had distributed free seeds and fertilisers to farmers.

"There should be no reason to worry. From the short rains we are expecting to harvest four million bags of maize and this will reduce the 16 million bags deficit to 12 million," Mr Ruto said.

He also put on notice grain dealers who might want to hike prices following the ‘false’ alarm.

"No trader is justified to increase maize flour prices, as there are no policy changes. The Government’s decision to waive duty on maize imports still exists till June," he said.

He added: "There is no shift in the supply chain, and there should be no shortage whatsoever in grains supply especially maize."

The minister said the expected harvest would cushion the country even further from food crisis.

On the Sh2 billon irrigation programme rolled out by the Government last year, Ruto said it had been a success and more than 500,000 bags of maize, and a million bags of rice are expected to be harvested.

"We are scaling up the irrigation programme from the current 40,000 acres under crop production to 200,000 acres this year, as a comprehensive measure to cushion the country completely from future food shortages," he said.

Resource farmers

He said the Government would give 500,000 poor farmers free seeds and fertiliser as part a food production campaign.

"Apart from giving out free seeds and fertilisers, the Government has in stock 1.2 millions bags of assorted fertiliser to be sold to farmers at a subsidised price of Sh2,000 for DAN, MAP and Sh1,400 for CAN for the next planting season," he added.