Kenyan MPs summon ministries over maize fungus

By Steve Mkawale

A parliamentary committee has summoned ministries and agencies dealing with agriculture for an urgent meeting to discuss a disease that has ravaged maize crop in South Rift region.

Naivasha MP John Mututho who chairs the parliamentary committee on Agriculture raised a red flag on food security in the country and said there was an urgent need to come up with a strategy to avoid an impending food shortage.

The meeting to be attended by the Ministries of Agriculture that of Special Programs, Finance, Water and Irrigation, and agriculture based states agencies is scheduled for June 4 at Parliament Buildings.

Mututho told a press conference at Parliament Buildings Friday that the presence of the deadly fungus would complicate the food security situation in the country if urgent measures were not taken.

He said one the strategies that the committee has come up with is the introduction of new maize growing zones that will be under the National Irrigation Board (NIB), which he said has a capacity of producing not less than one million bags of maize within four months and 4 million bags within three seasons in a year.

This, he said, would be achieved if Sh34billion set aside in the 2012-2013 budget for irrigation and importation of Sh5.7million bags of maize is transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture to boost local food production.

NIB has been allocated Sh17billion for irrigation while the Government has set aside another Sh17billion for importation of the maize for the Strategic Grains Reserves.

But Mututho said the money could be used to produce maize locally under the drip irrigation technology within four months.

“The Sh34 billion-should be used to implement a pilot study of drip irrigation immediately following the commencement of the financial year in selected areas of the country,” the committee recommends its report of budgetary allocations for ministries under its watch.

Mututho on Friday described the flood irrigation method used by the NIB in most of its projects across the country as archaic and dangerous to future of agriculture in the country.

He said the committee has recommended the phasing out flood irrigation and replace it with drip irrigation.

“We shall veto any money set aside for flood irrigation in the budget as a committee. We want money set aside for drip irrigation technologies, which, if adopted will see us harvest 100 bags of 90 kilo each per acre,” he said.

The committee in its report to Parliament made real its threat by recommending redirection of irrigation and maize importation funds to local crop production using drip irrigation.

“As previously, the committee reiterates its recommendations that irrigation sector, NIB and the Strategic Grain Reserves (SGR) be reverted to the ministry of Agriculture which is in charge of food production and with the capacity to deal with irrigation matters. Consequently, NIB’s budget should consequently be re-allocated and enhanced to take on board all the small and large irrigation schemes in the country,” the committee said.

The committee urged their colleagues in the House to adopt its recommendations to have a ban on maize importation and the funds set aside for such imports redirected to food production in the agricultural sector.

Early this week, the Government raised concerns over the fungus that ravaged maize crops in the South Rift region.

The State through the Ministry of Agriculture said more than 30 per cent of planted maize crops have been destroyed by the strange disease.