Invite a friend
Give Gmail to:
| 50 left |
Preview Invite
Move to Inbox
More
3 of 25
Why this ad?
MSc Project Management - www.liverpool-degrees.com - MSc Project Management Masters Find Out How to Apply Online!
|
food security
|
Sep 11
| | ||
| ||||
FOOD INSECURITY ON THE RISE – IN KENYA BY LUKE KAPCHANGA. BUNGOMA -KENYA. Nyongesa Sitati aged 70, is lame and a widower from Matulo village of Webuye location , who refused to be given farm inputs by the government. Sitati being in the bracket of food insecurity people, declined taking the offer, for fear that his small plot of land will be auctioned, in case he fails to repay the loan. “ I can not accept the maize seed and fertilizer, they will take away my land when I fail to pay for them”, he protested in May this year. His neighbor Joseph Waswa, with five children, took the farm inputs, given by the ministry of agriculture, but sold them immediately. These are among the 2.5 resource poor farmers, the government , through the ministry of agriculture under the National Agricultural Accelerated Input Access Programme(NAAIAP), targets to assist every year. NAAIAP was initiated in 2007 and its said to spend Kshs.18billion every year reaching to 2.5 million farmers. Matulo area as other areas within Bungoma county is eperiencing a high level of food theft , forcing farmers to harvest premature crop. Stories now abound where children as young as 5 children are found stealing maize. Webuye chief Misiko Barasa affirms that the issue of food stealing by residents is very seroius and set to contribute to poor harvest of mostly maize and beans. “I have received reports of children caught stealing beans and maize at night”, he said. Adding that by harvesting premature crops, it will affect post harvetsing preservation- which could lead to continued cycle of hunger. The chief notes that most of the families are large, with no steady income, so for them to survive is to steal from other poeples frams. Barasa blames the poor implementation of the NAAIAP – project for increased food poverty in his area. The programme he says is good on paper, while looking at it from above, yet at the bottom it has no effect. Failure, he says is in implementation where key stakeholders are nor invoved in identifying the beneficiaries. Extension officers of the ministry, he added “ come with a prepared list of beneficiaries who are not known among the adminsitration and at times not resource poor themselves. Food insecure families have not benefited from the NAAIAP – as they are not spotted and its usefulness not explained. “ Farmers are mostly not aware of this programmes aimed at improving their livelihoods, so they opt not to support it implementation” says Barasa. Evelyne Nakhungu 54, a widow with with 12 children and grand children is a case in point. She cliams that she has never received any assistance from the government, and she always plants maize seeds she prepares locally with manure. “I prepare my own planting seeds and manure from cows, because Ihave no money buy them from the shops”, Nakhungu says. This year her one acre plot yielded 3 bags of maize, which she admits will not last upto December. She maintains that no extension officer has ever paid a visit to her home or told about government assistance programmes. The government has almost a dozen programmes, funded by International Food and Agricultural Development (IFAD). This follows a reform process set in motion in the 1980s , funded by development partners which led to significant changes in the Kenyan economy. But the pace of progress slowed in the second half of the 1990s. Since then, population growth, degradation of natural resources, the changing global climate and the political crisis of early 2008 have all contributed to worsening poverty levels. Kenya’s long-term development blueprint, Vision 2030, was launched in 2008. It aims to create a “globally competitive and prosperous country with a high quality of life by 2030”. Vision 2030 is designed to guide the country towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and beyond, transforming Kenya into “a newly industrialized, middle-income country”. Evidence shows that agriculture-led growth in Kenya is more than twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth led by industry. Since 1979, IFAD has invested a total of US$214.5 million in 15 loan-financed programmes Investments include US$18.0 million in grants under the Belgian Survival Global leaders, under the African Green Revolution Forum( AGRF), will converge in Arusha, Tanzania in September to seek food security solutions. The AGRF 2012, sete the stage for African leaders to drive the initiative by promoting investments and policy support to increase agricultural productivity and income growth for African farmers. The forum will focus on unlocking Africas agricultural potential by empowering smallholder farmers across the continent. Sitati and hundreds or thousands of others like him in Bungoma county in Kenya, are clear targets as house holds which require access to sufficient food and good nutrition. Yet from what they go through on a daily basis, questions about how programmes run by the government support people based, on realistic analysis of their livelihood strategies that provide an understanding of how they live and make a living are asked.. Joram Wekesa a retired civic leader, accuses the extension officers of driving powerful vehicles in villages, without being in touch. “I always see, this vehicles roaming aound, and if you asked me, what they are doing, I can not tell you”, he complained. Wekesa noted that implementing persons of government policies lack analytical tools to increase understanding of complex interactions that determine food security status at different levels. In planting season of the month of April, farmers in Webuye, most of them , failed to access subsidized fertilizers provided by the government. The farmers complained of the process they had to go through before getting the inputs, and the behaviour of those in charge. At one time, they were told on a Friday, to collect the fertilizer on Monday, and when they turned up on Monday, they were told that the fertilizer ahd been exhausted. Officials at the National cereals and produce board, denied that they had promised the farmers to collect the inputs, because they had not received the supplies. Eye witnesses claimed that the fertilizer had been loaded to trucks at night during the weekends, something the manager refuted. Norrine Atieno the depot manager, “ we have no problem with the distribution as farmers with vouchers are getting ferytilizer,” she said then. She , however maintined that they do not operate on weekends, but she could not explain how the 5,000 bags of fertilizer had disappeared to. Morton Juma a human rights defender in Bungoma county, accused the agricultural officers at the district to collude with traders to divert fertilizer meant to benefit the resource poor for personal gain. Juma complains that , whereas the agricultural officils divert the fertilizers, they are the same people who compile reports about the food situation in their respective areas. AS at 31st July the food security situation analysis by the government was positive and staedy. “The National food security situation is currently staedy as hervesting of most long rains has commenced in many parts of the country”, said a report by the ministry of agriculture. As the this was being said, a viral mildew disease was reported in some part of the country, which was said to have impact on maize harvest. The country is likely to lose close to 200,000 bags of maize,out of the expected net surplus of 9,867,760 bags at the end of the year. What concerns farmers is if the perpetual problems they face year in year out, will ever be presented to international forums the way they see them? The AGRF forum, will bring together African Heads of State, ministers, private agribusiness firms, financial institutions, farmers, NGOs, civil society organizations and scioentists to discuss and develop concrete investiment plans for scaling up agricultural development. Notable guests will include Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co- Chair Melinda Gates, IFAD President Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, among others.
