By: Dennis Wendo
Worth Noting:
- The ministry of agriculture set forth a number of policies to address these challenges. The proposed policies and interventions should be carried out as planned by and the impacts there analyzed to enable better planning to cushion the population against food insecurity.
- These measures which include; provision of emergency food assistance; adoption of food safety nets; food subsidies; cash transfer; food for work and food for training; school feeding programmes; adjustments in trade and tax policy measures; enhancement of agricultural production through agricultural input subsidies and Increased administered prices for producers should be strengthened in the short-term approach.
The public outrage on escalating food prices and the would be effects in the country, calls for practical intervention measures by the Government of the day.
The impacts of COVID- 19 on Kenya’s food system indicate year-on-year food inflation rates declined between January 2021 and April 2021 due to several reasons, including reduced demand because of COVID-19 induced economic contractions and adequate domestic and trade stocks of staple cereals.
As of May2021, nutritious food shortages differed between counties, with the highest incidences in Wajir, Meru and Bomet and the lowest in Turkana, Nakuru and Kericho. Food SMEs continue to experience poor profit margins and declines in sales across the country due to uncertainty caused by pandemic-control measures. The purchasing power of urban poor and rural consumers continues to shrink.
Hunger and massive loss of livestock and human deaths continues to be experienced in the counties of Baringo, Turkana Isiolo, Garissa, Wajir, Kilifi, Marsabit, Tana River Samburu, Mandera, Kitui and Makueni. Many families are staring at starvation and malnutrition, with delayed long rainfalls and increased prices on farm inputs during this planting season; an indication that the expected returns on harvests and food reserves will be low in the long run.
The rising food prices have an adverse effect on the poor and agricultural development as a whole. Majority of Kenyans largely rely on agriculture for livelihood sustainability. Drastically the Government should step in and double its efforts in cushioning Kenyans against the sky rocketing prices on food, farm inputs and fuel.
The ministry of agriculture set forth a number of policies to address these challenges. The proposed policies and interventions should be carried out as planned by and the impacts there analyzed to enable better planning to cushion the population against food insecurity.
These measures which include; provision of emergency food assistance; adoption of food safety nets; food subsidies; cash transfer; food for work and food for training; school feeding programmes; adjustments in trade and tax policy measures; enhancement of agricultural production through agricultural input subsidies and Increased administered prices for producers should be strengthened in the short-term approach.
Long term mitigative measures that includes; investment in agricultural research; increased investment in key agricultural services; investment in local infrastructure; investment in rural financial services, markets and linkages; investment in agro-processing; investment in food distribution systems and macro-economic policy management should be in consideration and in place by either regimes.
Key stakeholders in the food sector should continue to analyse food prices and related issues and come up with strategies for early warning to avert the negative effects of high food prices in the future.
The relevant authorities need to put in place mechanisms to respond to early warning of disasters such droughts and floods.
There is a need to increase agricultural productivity in the country. This requires the government to expedite the implementation processes for the various policies that have been formulated.
KARI, the main agricultural research Institution, adopted a value chain analysis framework. This is critical and bound to help identify who does what at what point of the value chain and who is likely to benefit or to bear the costs of implementing the proposed interventions.
The identification of bottlenecks and addressing the same along the value chain will improve efficiency and increase output in the value chain which may result in stabilizing or reducing the food price crisis in Kenya. This calls for various stakeholders engaged in agriculture and related activities to work together to enhance better results.
Dennis Wendo
Founder- Integrated Development Network
Suleiman Mbatiah