Kenya’s effort to become food-secure has not borne fruit after years of policy changes and interventions, a Global Hunger Index (GHI) report has revealed.
Its hunger levels remain serious, the survey shows.
In the report, Kenya was ranked at position 86 out of 117 countries, making it one of the nations whose citizens cannot afford proper meals.
The report, which was released by a Germany-based Welt Hunger Hilfe, noted that Kenya has made some progress over the last 10 years in combating hunger but the situation was still dire.
“At position 86, it means that Kenya still suffers from a level of hunger that is serious,” said Kelvin Shingles, Kenya’s country director for the organisation.
“Although there has been some slight improvement in the number of people going hungry in Kenya, there remains a significant challenge,” he said.
A report by Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra) indicates that one in every three Kenyans suffers from chronic food insecurity and poor nutrition annually while 29 percent of the population does not attain the minimum dietary requirements to sustain a healthy and productive life.
“This calls for a collective energy to eliminate hunger by 2030 as renewed effort is required in the struggle against hunger,” said the official yesterday.
Among the issues that has cushioned Kenya from becoming food-secure include the adverse effects of climate change that have partly affected food production.
Other factors threatening food security in many countries include extreme poverty, poor governance that have resulted in growing numbers of people suffering from hunger, the report indicates.
“Climate change is a threatening multiplier for hungry undernourished people. Countries with high levels of hunger are also highly vulnerable to climate change.”
Kenya has been putting up measures to address the perennial food insecurity with scaling up of irrigation schemes to cut reliance on rain-fed agriculture.
Kenya’s production of maize, wheat and rice has been rising from 2013/14 to 2017/18.
Maize production went up from 39 million 90kg bags to 44.6 million in the five years while hectares of rice under irrigation rose from 19,411 to 27,383.
