Counties must champion robust agriculture programmes to combat food insecurity

A spinach farm in Yimbo, Bondo sub-county. [Isaiah Gwengi, Standard]

Agriculture remains the backbone of our economy and is essential to food security in Kenya, where millions of families are currently in dire need of relief food as a result of famine.

Food insecurity casts a long shadow over a nation’s progress, especially in a developing country like Kenya, where it directly affects the energy and productivity of its people.

Even more troubling is that food, a basic necessity, has become a political tool, and aspirants promise to lower food prices and offer free foodstuffs during campaigns.

This cycle often results in the election of leaders who vanish after the polls, only to reappear before the next election with the same empty promises, knowing that hunger makes people vulnerable to persuasion.

Robust policies and programmes, particularly by county governments to handle agriculture, are required to ensure sustainable food production across the country.

Such measures would guarantee food security by keeping granaries stocked with enough food to sustain families until the next harvest season, while also economically empowering rural communities through the sale of surplus produce.

Every county in the country is grappling with this basic question: How do we turn agriculture into a reliable foundation for food security, household incomes and jobs for young people and women? Increasingly, the answer is becoming clear: support farmers where it matters most and the results will follow.

President William Ruto has made food security a central pillar of his administration, particularly through the provision of subsidised fertiliser to farmers across the country. The results have been encouraging, with many regions recording improved production and renewed confidence among farmers. In Kiambu, we chose to follow this national rallying call and build our county strategy around the same practical logic: Lower the cost of inputs, expand access to quality seeds and let farmers do what they already know how to do: produce food.

For too long, many smallholder farmers were trapped in a cycle of low productivity, not because they lacked land or effort, but because the cost of fertiliser and quality seeds was beyond their reach. In Kiambu, this was addressed through a countywide programme that provided free fertiliser alongside certified maize and bean seeds, enabling households to grow enough food for their own consumption and still have a surplus to sell. To date, more than 600,000 farmers across the country have directly benefited from this intervention.

The impact has been real and measurable. In areas such as semi-arid Ngoliba and Ndeiya, which in the past depended on relief food during difficult seasons, farmers are now producing their own food. Families are more secure, resilience has improved, and the need for external food assistance has sharply declined.

These changes are not abstract. During engagements across the county, farmers often share green maize harvested from their own fields. On several occasions, women have carried bunches of maize as a simple but powerful signal that food production, not food politics, should define our future.

Kenya’s food security challenge will be solved by sustained, practical support to farmers. The national push led by President Ruto has shown what is possible.

Mr Wamatangi is the Governor of Kiambu County