Why cereal growers warn Kenya is facing a food crisis

Cereal Growers Association (CGA) Chairman Nahshon Ngetich on Spice FM.[Screengrab] 

Kenya is facing a food crisis driven by an inefficient market and too few investors, Cereal Growers Association (CGA) Chairman Nahshon Ngetich has warned.

Speaking on Spice FM on Thursday, August 13, Ngetich said aflatoxin levels in maize on the market were alarmingly high, adding that Kenyans were more concerned about food security than food sovereignty.

Kenya’s legal aflatoxin limit is 10 parts per billion, while the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation told a World Food Safety Day forum in June that some cereal samples had tested as high as 500 parts per billion.

Ngetich called for the reintroduction of agricultural extension officers to guide farmers during the planting season, particularly on liming, crop rotation, seed varieties and fertiliser use.

“We, the farmers, are to blame. We should ask for field officers to be there, ask county governments in the maize-producing regions that we need field officials,” he said.

He said extension officers were instrumental before agriculture was devolved to counties under the 2010 Constitution, visiting farmers and recommending seed varieties suited to local weather and soil conditions.

“Kenyans are more concerned about food security than food sovereignty, and right now, the aflatoxin levels in the maize going around are alarmingly high.”

Ngetich also criticised the Ministry of Agriculture over GMO regulations, arguing that farmers who cannot replant certain seeds have to keep buying them.

“The Ministry of Agriculture is being populated by people who are not patriotic,” he noted.

He urged the government to improve market efficiency to address the role of middlemen and brokers while also looking beyond fertiliser subsidies to wider challenges facing farmers, including land leasing, pesticides and herbicides.

On the 1.75-million-acre Galana Kulalu food security project spanning Kilifi and Tana River counties, Ngetich said the scheme was misplaced, arguing that the region’s weather conditions did not favour maize cultivation.