Policy on fertility and fertilisers on the way

What you need to know:

  • Plans to involve county governments are at an advanced stage as the ministry is organising a round table where the draft policy will be presented to the county governments for their input.
  • Types of fertilisers used are mostly not the right ones for the different agro-ecological zones. Increased use of fertilisers is key.

To what extent do Kenya’s agricultural policies support food security and nutrition? Seeds of Gold writer DOROTHY KWEYU interviewed the Principal Secretary for Agriculture, MRS SICILY KARIUKI:

Do we have a policy on urban farming? If not, why not? If it is being developed, how soon is it likely to be rolled out? To what extent are the counties involved in the evolution of this policy?

Urban farming has been practised over the years albeit without a formal policy framework. This is bound to change after the formulation of an Urban Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Policy (UPALF), which was initiated in 2009 with the objectives of promoting and regulating environmentally sustainable development to improve incomes, food security, create employment, enhance living standards and reduce poverty, while focusing on land use, public health and the environmental management.

Plans to involve county governments are at an advanced stage as the ministry is organising a round table where the draft policy will be presented to the county governments for their input. The meeting is to enrich the document and facilitate ownership and implementation of the policy once it is finalised.

Do we have a soil conservation policy? If so, why has it failed to reverse the rapidly declining soil fertility?

We do not have a soil conservation policy. However, soil conservation is mainstreamed in other agricultural policies as one of the strategies for increasing agricultural productivity.

The ministry has been implementing the Land Usage Rules as stipulated in the Agriculture Act, Cap 318 (now replaced with The Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority (AFFA) Act, 2013), which gave guidelines on conservation measures for various categories of land.

Enforcement of rules and guidelines has been hampered by inadequate extension officers to inspect the farms; conflict between the roles of extension officers as change agents and law enforcers. (Chiefs were more effective enforcers); high cost of establishing and maintaining structural conservation measures, especially among the resource-poor farmers; incompatibility of conservation measures with mechanised land preparation methods; resistance to change by farmers who perceive conservation as a punitive colonial practice that ended with the attainment of independence (1963); and the land tenure system that confers absolute land usage rights to the title holder.
Plans are underway to allocate resources to develop a soil fertility and fertiliser policy. Soil conservation is one of the interventions for improving and sustaining soil fertility.

Given that chemical fertilisers have failed to reverse declining food production in Kenya, besides being linked to the death of our soils, what is the government policy on these inputs?

Fertiliser application rates in Africa, Kenya included are very low. Types of fertilisers used are mostly not the right ones for the different agro-ecological zones. Increased use of fertilisers is key.

This is in line with the Abuja Declaration of 2006, which states: “Fertiliser is crucial for achieving an African Green Revolution in the face of a rapidly rising population and declining soil fertility”. Accordingly, the ministry has made recommendations on the types of fertilisers for the different zones, which were launched in February this year.

To increase production and ensure food security and income at farm level for small-scale farmers, the country targets to increase fertiliser consumption from the current 31kg per hectare—which is far below the required rate—by the year 2015,

The government is implementing various programmes to spur growth in fertiliser use and stabilise prices. Notable ones include: bulk fertiliser procurement; increased fertiliser use by resource poor farmers; and regional/national fertiliser manufacturing plant.