Posted on April, 8, 2019 at 10:56 am
Kenya’s food imports in the first two months of the year hit the second highest levels in history, pointing to a food crisis in a year where the weatherman has warned of depressed rainfall.
Food orders from abroad in the January and February were at Sh28.73 billion, only second to Sh37.96 billion recorded in the similar period last year when traders had taken advantage of an import subsidy.
Increased purchase of food from foreign countries from the second half of 2017 through early 2018 followed a waiver of import duties between mid-May and December 2017 on food items such as maize, milk powder and sugar.
This was largely to cushion the poor from high cost of food following a biting drought from late 2016 through first half of 2017 that cut production, resulting in increased costs.
Food security experts have warned the country could be staring at a food crisis if the March-April-May long rains delays further than mid this month.
“Initial indication is that it’s not going to be a good (food harvesting) season. The problem is that it is going to be two bad seasons in a row because the short season from October to December was not a good one,” Dr Timothy Njagi, a researcher at Egerton University’s Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, said via phone.
“There’s no up-to-date data from Met (Kenya Meteorological Department) and so we are only trying to make out scenarios.”
President Uhuru Kenyatta said last Thursday that some 4,400 water pans were constructed in 2018 under the Household Irrigation Water Project to enhance food production at household level.
“The pans will store six million cubic metres of water, placing an additional 6,000 acres under irrigation,” Mr Kenyatta said during the State of the Nation address at Parliament Buildings.
The Food Security and Nutrition Working Group (FSNWG) on Wednesday listed residents of Northeastern Kenya among 10.7 million people at staring food and livestock feeds crisis from June.
FSNWG is a food security and nutrition platform championed by UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and IGAD’s Climate Prediction and Applications (ICPAC).
“The poor performance of the past season’s short rains already led to below-average crop production and deteriorating pastures in some agro-pastoral and marginal mixed farming areas,” the firm said.
“If the forecasted rainfall deficits materialise in April, this would lead to an atypical increase in food insecurity, likely to peak from June to October.”
Source: Business Daily