Food security: The myths and facts

from the Standard, Kenya

By Peter Okong’o

Increased food insecurity is now the biggest threat to Kenya’s economic development.

With the level of malnourishment within the population increasing in tandem with poverty, labour productivity and access to education are rapidly being undermined.

When combined with disease, this spells disaster for the country’s battered agricultural sector.

Up to 70 per cent of Kenya’s malnourished population are in rural areas. The rest live in the slums that have become a permanent feature in our towns and cities.

The most recent blow to Kenya’s food security was the post-election violence that rocked the North Rift region — regarded as the country’s bread basket — in January this year.

This region produces most of Kenya’s maize and wheat. There are several factors responsible, including an underdeveloped agricultural sector, HIV and Aids, corruption in government and frequent drought and famine.

Up 40 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa is malnourished, varying region by region. Food security has three aspects: food availability (supply of food), food access (demand for food) and food adequacy. What are the root causes for Kenya’s underdeveloped agricultural sector? They are many.

Among them are barriers to markets. This is often due to poor infrastructure, limited resources, lack of information, poor supporting institutions and poor policies.

Others are poverty driven, and include the high cost of farm inputs like fertiliser and chemicals and quality seeds.

Climate change has also become a major barrier. A recent conference on global warming held in July in Cape Town, South Africa, noted that there has been an increase in extreme weather spells that are now playing havoc with Africa’s food systems.

Land that was once fertile is becoming arid as ground water levels drop. Deforestation due to human resettlement, like in the Mau escarpment, are partly responsible.

Poverty

It also encourages devastating pest outbreaks that cannot be managed by poverty-stricken farmers who cannot afford pesticides, noted Prof Onesmo ole-Moiyoi of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), based in Kenya.

"Climate change induces outbreak of pests such as the desert locust. In case of an outbreak, locusts are capable of destroying crops. I have seen a locust outbreak. They eat everything they can find within days," he told the conference.

This was bases on research by Dr Zina Ziervogel, a senior researcher at the Climate Systems Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

"Changing weather patterns or extreme weather events, such as floods or droughts, can have negative consequences for agricultural production.

As a result people have less access to food, which forces them to buy food products. This affects their financial situation," she told the conference. "It also influences their health as people often buy cheaper food, which is frequently les nutritious.

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