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ECONOMY-KENYA: Amid Political Crisis, Food Shortages Loom

Rosalia Omungo

NAIROBI, Feb 27 2008 (IPS) - Elizabeth Mutai, who farms passion fruit in the Keiyo district in Kenya&#39s Rift Valley, is worried. Sales of the crop has dropped significantly since the eruption of violence after the election held in December 2007.

&#39&#39I planted three acres of passion fruit and now I have to throw the fruit away to the cows,’’ she laments.

The drop in domestic demand has seen traders from neighbouring countries cashing in on the crisis.

According to Mutai, ‘‘traders from across the border have been taking advantage of the situation. They insist on buying a kilogram at a throwaway price of 5 shillings (0.07 dollars). They then sell the fruit making a killing at 150 shillings (2,2 dollars) per kilogram’’.

The result is that Mutai’s household has struggled with buying food. Her children’s education has also been affected. She has two university students in the house who are expected to report back for their studies but she cannot afford the fees.

Maize farmer Francis Kimosop Kimetto complains about the costs of inputs. ‘‘Last year, diesel was 60 shillings per litre (0,9 dollars) but now we have to pay 81 shillings per litre (1,2 dollars).’’ He has also been hit hard by soaring fertiliser prices.

‘‘If fertiliser remains this expensive, farmers will revert back to the traditional method of cow dung which will reduce the yield,’’ he adds.

Raymond Sande, a maize farmer in Keiyo, suffers under a similar plight. ‘‘The price of crop inputs has tripled’’ since the start of the conflict, he says. ‘‘Farmers here will be out of business if something does not happen urgently.’’

He uses phosphate fertiliser for the maize crop. ‘‘Last year, I spent 1,500 shillings (20 dollars) on fertiliser. This year I am spending more than double that. There is no profit to look forward to. The ministry of agriculture should do something urgently,’’ says Sande.

‘‘We want a minister who will solve our problems,’’ says Francis Rono, a wheat farmer in Kitale which lies in the North Rift Valley. This area, part of the bread basket of the country, is one of the regions affected by the political unrest.

But farmers’ woes are further compounded by the fact that there is no minister in charge of agriculture presently. After the announcement of results of the disputed December 27 general election, the President Mwai Kibaki put in place a lean cabinet with 10 key ministries represented. Agriculture is not one of the 10.

Statistics show that farmers normally prepare more than 30 percent of their land for tilling by January. However, only 10 percent is presently ready. Evictions from land and the unavailability of farming inputs and equipment led to this situation.

Food shortages loom as production in wheat and maize has dropped. Some farmers had not completed harvesting the last season’s crop by the time the violence broke out. Destruction extended to stores being razed.

Maize reserves are inadequate. The National Cereals and Produce Board has 430,000 tons of maize in its strategic reserves – enough to survive only the first quarter of the year.

Catherine Wanjiru, a Nairobi resident, expressed shock at how quickly food prices shot up.

‘‘I had to cut my budget for the past month because the prices of virtually all commodities have increased by two or three shillings,’’ she explains.

While the shelves at local supermarket chains in Nairobi remain well-stocked, rumours are doing the rounds that traders have been hiding their goods in anticipation of massive price inflation. Messages like ‘‘buy enough stock to last a lifetime as you never know what will happen next’’ have been circulating.

Mama Mon’gina, a trader at the Kawangware market, one of the largest markets in Nairobi, says she has been able to obtain goods as usual. The mother of six sells traditional green vegetables which she buys from farmers on the outskirts of the city.

‘‘I leave early morning for Wangige where I buy the supplies. They are fresh. The farmers can’t hoard their produce because it is perishable. They are only lucky to have us buyers because their goods have been rotting on the farms. There is no one to buy the stuff because people are restricting their movements following the post-election violence.’’

With the disruption of transport services it is more difficult to move from one place to another.

Meanwhile a report released by the World Food Programme, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the government’s early warning system last year cautioned that limited rains and the low prospect more rain would exacerbate food shortages.

The food update for February says serious food shortages could be experienced because of the post-election violence which mainly hurt the bread basket regions of the Rift Valley and Western provinces.

More than 1,000 people are dead in the post-election skirmishes that also saw 300,000 people displaced. Kenyans are calling for a quick solution to the problem.