Kenyan food security lessons, opportunities

The last one year has been a tumultuous time for Kenyan agriculture. A prolonged drought, armyworm invasion and an ambitious food subsidy programme to ensure Kenyans did not go hungry.

Kenya tackled these challenges head on and weathered the volatility having learned a number of lessons and now looks to the future.

This time last year, maize prices were more than 50 per cent higher and weather forecasts painted another gloomy picture with Kenya facing a second year of drought. A food security emergency ensued with the government taking decisive action to implement the challenging undertaking of a nationwide food subsidy programme.

The task of providing affordable food for 48 million Kenyans should not be underrated and was arguably the single largest food import programme in recent Kenyan history, if not ever. This mission required the collaboration of all actors along the international and Kenyan food supply chain.

The magnitude of the operation is largely underestimated due to the immense complexity of what may appear facile from the outside; delivering food from one location to another. When one looks at the different actors involved (and only scratching the surface), the supply chain included the Kenyan government, international and local suppliers, shipping companies, port services, truck companies, the National Cereals and Produce Board(NCPB), millers and retailers.

Players across agriculture, logistics, government and retail assembled into one working unit so that affordable food was available to Kenyans.

This did not come without sacrifice across the value chain. Millers forfeiting their years of marketing investment and research and development into their brand to supply flour at the same price as their competitors for the better part of a year. It should also be celebrated that Kenyans came together in a time of need to solve issues which were largely out of their control.

Of course with an operation of this scale there were challenges and hiccups. Initially there were reports of inadequate supply of subsidised flour to some of the more remote locations and on some supermarket shelves.

The port of Mombasa strained under the extra cargo passing through and quickly became congested such that importers’ vessels waited as long as one month for a berth. At more than Sh1 million per day demurrage, the private sector faced a bill running into the hundreds of millions of shillings.

Now that the subsidy programme has ended, Kenya is looking forward to how it can improve the food security situation and mitigate as many hazards as possible.

The next season does not come without its risks. Farmers are expected to continue their battle with armyworm and are reported to lack funds to buy inputs as a result of delayed payments from NCPB for their produce. Millers are also waiting for billions of shillings owed to them as a hangover from the subsidy programme. As a result, miller liquidity is in crisis, reducing their ability to purchase raw materials that could eventually force them to cut production, exacerbating food security fragility.

The 2017 food import programme also highlighted severe port capacity constraints if such an event were to arise again. The SGR is a powerful initiative that can work in tandem with an increase in port handling capacity if managed and implemented correctly.

The fertiliser subsidy programme continues with the aim of facilitating improved access to the input at affordable prices to help increase yields. Fertiliser adoption is consequently increasing and innovative blending plants are coming online to add further to improving soil quality and fertiliser effectiveness to specific crops and soils. However, fertiliser is only one element of a functioning food system.

World agricultural yields continue to increase and crop prices decrease as a result of improved implementation of technologies and scientific research. Meanwhile, Kenya is lagging but its advantage is the ability to tap into this already available knowledge and expertise.

Irrigation technology has turned parts of the world considered deserts into productive land able to grow two or three crops a year. Seed technologies including hybrid breeding and genetic modification have led to exponential yield increases, improved tolerance to drought and lower application of chemicals.

Market linkages between farmers and buyers are crucial to develop efficiencies in the food chain. The government cannot be left to do everything on its own. Encouraging private sector competition is fundamental in the development of agriculture. Farmers with better access to competitive buyers are more incentivised to innovate and produce according to market demands. The private sector profit motive is key to driving the agricultural market through basic economics of supply and demand. Free markets are catalysts for efficient delivery of goods from excess areas to deficit through the all-encompassing indicator – price.

Kenya has seen an abundance of rainfall over the last few months with figures more than 200 per cent higher than normal for this time of year. Farmers might see this as challenge, however, they now have moisture which will give an extremely positive start to crops this season.

If the country pulls together, as it did during the food crisis, assesses and acts on the success and failures of the last year, then there are immense opportunities on the horizon.

GILES LEWIS, Country Director for Export Trading Group.
 

Source: Business Daily