Posted on April, 24, 2019 at 08:42 am
By STEPHEN ASTARIKO The Star Correspondent
Garissa Governor Ali Korane on Monday endorsed an agreement with the World Food Programme on Sustainable Food Systems.
The five-year programme aims at creating sustainable livelihoods in agriculture and livestock, improving water supply, supporting women and youth as well as assets creation.
It will be carried out by the county and WFP.
The two sides agreed to improve community resilience and strengthen county government structures to tackle food shortage and drought in the future.
They aim to build resilient livelihoods and increase market access by smallholder producers and traders, strengthen capacities to prepare for and respond to emergencies and implement social protection among vulnerable populations.
The agreement, an MoU, was signed at the UN offices in Gigiri, Nairobi. WFP was represented by the Country Representative to Kenya Annalisa Conte and her staff. They formalised a plan of operation.
This will ensure county and WFP efforts are aligned to support the achievement of goal zero hunger as articulated by the county and WFP's strategic plans.
Korane said it is time the government changes tack and invests in small and medium irrigation projects to improve food production in arid and semi-arid counties.
He said ASAL counties suffer the most during drought and famine, hence the need to change strategy.
“The ever-changing weather patterns across the world requires that people to think outside the box. We cannot do the same thing in the same manner and then expect different results,” Korane said.
Ms Conte was accompanied by Tiina Honkanen, Food Systems Coordinator; Joseph Wafula, head of the Garissa Office; Pauline Maingi, Olive Wahome, Samuel Ndeti and Bernard Nyatuga.
The Governor was accompanied by County Agriculture and Livestock executive Issa Yarow.
Source: The Star