Government blackmailing farmers with maize export ban

Once again, Kenyans are losing life to starvation while Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett is busy issuing absurd Government orders.

The order to ban maize exports came hot on the heels of an earlier public declaration that we will have to import maize.

What a mischievous way to address serious national problems, which even the first government recognised and documented in Sessional Paper 10 of 1965!

Poverty, disease and ignorance were the three vices that formed the 'evil trinity' in our socio-economic-political system and therefore, required steadfast Government policies, rules, and appropriate implementation.

As a result, food production grew at an average of 3.5 per cent per year throughout the 1960s and 1970s, largely because of smallholder farmers' efforts.

But by the 1980s, the Government had fallen short on its objectives for the agricultural sector.

This was largely due to improper exercising of mandate by the National Cereals and Produce Board, which failed to stabilise supply and price, private trade, the movement of maize and supply of fertilisers and pesticides, seasonal credit systems and market conditions.

The logical outcome of all these factors was that farmers drastically reduced the acreage under crop production on their farms.

With this information in mind and a careful review of Sessional Paper 4 of 1981 on national food policy, the Cabinet secretary need not blackmail farmers while at the same time aiming to facilitate the work of maize import cartels.