DEVELOPMENT: Kenyans Worry over the Unending Circle of Famine

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Aug 28 2004 (IPS) - Kenya is not giving agriculture the seriousness it deserves, even though some 75 percent of the country’s economy depends on the industry, campaigners say.

The failure by the government to improve food security has only played in the hands of drought and famine.

Right now, Kenya is experiencing severe famine in five of its eight provinces as a result of reduced crop production of about 40 percent, according to the ministry of agriculture.

The poor performance, which emanates from the appalling short rainfall in October to Dec. 2003 and long rains of March to May 2004, has left up to 4 million people in urgent need of food.

This prompted the government to declare famine a national disaster. Last month President Mwai Kibaki appealed for over 100 million dollars for buying food. The government said 156,000 metric tonnes of food were needed between July and Jan. 2005, to avert unnecessary deaths due to famine.

The president’s appeal has been heeded by an influx of donation by local companies scrambling to buy food for the needy. Churches, too, and some individuals have joined the bandwagon, depositing money in a special bank account set up for assisting the hungry.

But charity alone cannot end famine. The solution, agriculturalists argue, lies in the government investing heavily in the agriculture sector, and making the system work and remain productive even in the midst of changing weather patterns.

“The government should allocate funds for educating farmers on how to survive. It’s not helpful to give them handouts. It’s not effective to give a fisherman fish. Teach him how to catch fish. That way you will be helping him to help himself in a sustainable manner,” Silvery Oteng’i, a lecturer at the department of meteorology, University of Nairobi, observed.

He said: “There is need for authorities to pump money in educating populations on new farming technologies. One cannot talk of achieving food security if farmers do not keep abreast with new ways of farming. Only when this happens can we talk of achieving total food security.”

In this year’s budget, which was presented in parliament in mid June, the government set aside 37.5 million dollars to revamp Kenya’s agricultural sector. The money is expected to be raised by the government and its donor partners.

The government says it has been educating farmers on methods of growing alternative crops, depending on the weather pattern as forecast by the meteorological department.

“The government has been trying to warn the farmers of climate changes as per information we get from the meteorological department. For instance, if it is a season of short rains, we ask them to grow crops that take a shorter time to mature such as beans, even if they are used to growing long-rain crops like maize,” Bonaventure Wendo, Director of the National Disaster Operations Centre, told IPS.

“Those who are not used to growing drought-resistant crops like cassava (manioc), are also advised to do so. But this has not yielded fruit since it is difficult to impose upon someone what to grow in his or her shamba (farm). It is a matter of whether people listen or not,” he said.

The famine is also changing the eating habits of Kenyans. Recently, Justice and Constitutional Affairs assistant minister Robinson Githae, told Kenyans to stop being selective and start eating rats, locusts, dogs and birds to rid hunger as is done in other parts of Africa. His remarks have sparked public debate.

Billow Kerrow, a member of parliament for Mandera Central, an arid region in the country’s north eastern province, says political will is lacking to revamp Kenya’s agriculture sector.

In a five-year plan which he launched last month, Kerrow outlined a set of interventions, among them, irrigation, that could be used in crop production in dry lands. He singled out Libya, Egypt among others, that have exhibited political will by zeroing in on irrigation and which are now food sufficient unlike Kenya, which is nothing near a desert.

So far experts have ruled out enacting new agricultural policies. They say the existing ones should be strengthened. “We may have books full of policies, but they will be of no use to anyone if they are not being implemented,” Oteng’i said.

The experts want agricultural extension officers to travel around the East African country to assess the activities of farmers and advise them. This policy has collapsed since the 1970s.