FOOD SECURITY IN KENYA ADREAM

Last week DP William Ruto announced that the government had rolled out over  Ksh  1 billion to buy food for affected areas with hunger following pro longed dry season, which is a good idea  and joy to the suffering.

The DP went ahead to suggest to suggest that no Kenyan will die due to hanger because the government is ready to buy food, the questing vexing experts is for how long will the affected areas be depending on donation

 The truth is that food security is the dream of  numerous Africa  including  Kenyans educationalist policy makers and politicians because it is feared that in few years coming  this region may not be able to feed its growing population unless ne agriculture method is applied

Back at home Counties lead by  Nairobi Counties had introduced urban agriculture  but the nagging question is where is the land and  experts who understand urban farming which is new terminology to many Nairobians.

The question of food security is simple both Scholars officers and policy makers should move from hotel forum but instead move to field  and educate farming on new method, because farmers are waiting for you.

 Doing something means demonstrating it and that is why Kenyans should stop talking about  farming but plant more food because Kenyans are  dying from Baringo to Turkana.

In order for this to be achieved Scholars should advice the government to go back into early plan for example Development Plan 1989 to 1993 not only this agriculture officers should do some practical work in the field.

The habit of the government waiting for hunger to  strike  in order to  start making political statements are over when it comes to food  security what is needed is lasting solution which  means educating famers

Agriculture is the mainstay of Kenya’s economy providing as it does the basis for the development of other sectors of the economy. Priority ranking in the sector centers on food production, generation of raw materials for local industries and graduated processing of production for export. The overall thrust of our agricultural policy is first, to achieve internal self-sufficiency; second, to maintain adequate levels of strategic reserves and third, to generate additional supplies for export. This policy thrust contribute toward the attainment of our objectives of employment, income generation, foreign exchange earnings, rural-urban balance, food security and overall growth.

The feeding of Kenya’s growing population require increasing supplies of staple foods, principally cereals (maize, wheat, sorghum, millet, rice) pulses and tubers (peas, beans, potatoes), oilseeds (groundnuts, sunflower, cashew nuts, macadamia, simsim, castor seed, etc.), fruits and vegetables, meat and meat products, dairy products, poultry and eggs, honey and horticultural produce. The production of these items will be stepped up during the Plan period in order to meet the country’s needs for internal self-sufficiency in the first instance. In particular, scientific and technological applications will be fully employed to ensure adequate supplies of all staples.

The demands that as much of the raw materials required for the proposed industrial thrust be generated internally. Principal among the agro-industrial materials to be promoted include seed cotton, sisal, pyrethrum, tobacco, barley, hops, coconut and palm oil, sugar cane, softwoods, hides and skins and other animal and reptile products, etc. Government will encourage and promote the exploitation of latent industrial opportunities that would generate consumer products from these material. The necessary infrastructure will be put in place and enhanced where it exists to facilitate the exploitation of these opportunities.

In addition to producing enough food to meet domestic demand, production levels will also be geared towards meeting strategic reserves sufficient to carry the country for at least six months in the worst of times. This will entail the development of adequate storage facilities at appropriate locations in all districts alongside national storage facilities. At the same time, farmers will be encouraged to construct and maintain modified traditional homestead granaries to store their domestic reserves. Appropriate methods will be applied reduce the levels of pre- and post-harvest food losses occasioned by pests and other environmental contaminants. In this regard, applicable processing and packaging technologies will be employed to increase the  shelf-life of staples. The agricultural sector has already been billed to be the base of raw materials for industry. Besides, there is also need to ensure smooth production levels as and when there may otherwise be shortages arising from the vagaries of weather or unexpected surges in demand.

6.5 The maintenance of adequate levels of strategic food reserves and raw material inventories is predicated upon the development of a viable planning and monitoring system that will provide early warning signals to forestall the falling of such reserves and inventories below desirable levels. The nucleus of such a system has already been established in the case of food following on the experience of the 1984 drought. The system will be restructured and strengthened into a Strategic Reserves and Inventories Monitoring Facility in the Ministry of Planning and National Development to ensure that it provides a base for timely action on the maintenance of desirable levels of food reserves and raw material inventories. The principal function of the Facility will be to co-ordinate the efforts of other relevant Government agencies in the collection, processing and dissemination of data and information on the state of reserves and inventories and the factors likely to affects their adequacy and distribution, and to send out early warning signals when appropriate or optimum levels of reserves and inventories are threatened. The actual operation of specific reserves and inventory functions will remain the responsibility of respective Gove