Ministry to release food from reserves in drought alleviation

The Agriculture ministry is emptying grain reserves to mitigate the biting food shortage in some parts of the country and create space for new harvest from the North Rift.

While issuing the quarterly Food Security Situation report on Wednesday, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett insisted that there were enough stocks in the reserves and on farms to last the country up to June next year, despite some 1.3 million Kenyans needing food aid.

“We expect to get 34 million bags from the harvest, which is underway. In addition, we anticipate the short rains harvest will add another 7 million bags, bringing our production on a par with consumption levels,” he said.

The country consumes about 3.2 million bags of maize monthly, which translates to 39 million bags a year. The National Cereals and Produce Board has 731,000 bags left in its reserves. But according to Mr Bett, farmers are holding 9.5 million bags.

In order to motivate farmers to sell their maize to the government, the CS announced that the cereals board would from this week begin purchasing the grain at Sh2,300 per 90kg bag with an extra Sh500 as a rebate in order to sweeten the deal.

The Director of Crops Management in the ministry, Dr Johnson Irungu noted that the government purchased 500,000 bags under the Strategic Drain Reserve programme last season.

“We anticipate to buy more than 1 million bags for SGR to boost our food reserve,” he added.

However, a farmer from Sergoit in Uasin Gishu County, Ms Susan Kong’ato, said: “The impending food shortage is unavoidable as a result of erratic rainfall that interfered with a smooth planting programme that led to low yield this season.”

The county harvested 4.2 million bags of maize last season but the yield declined this year due to poor rainfall and use of low quality fertiliser.

Meanwhile, President Kenyatta is next week expected to launch large-scale intervention measures to deal with the food scarcity in the arid areas.

This was said by Majority Leader Aden Duale in the National Assembly, adding that a decision had been made for the Devolution ministry to spend up to Sh2 billion to supply food and water to the areas being ravaged by the drought.

Mr Duale said the decision was made on Wednesday morning at a meeting attended by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and officials from the Devolution ministry.

USE WATER BOWSERS

He said the government would make use of water bowsers from all its agencies and ministries with the Devolution ministry tasked to ensure all Kenyans have food.

The government, however, did not escape criticism, with Agriculture Committee chairman Adan Mohammed Nooru, who initiated the Motion, saying the its failure to deal with the issue “boils down to lack of proper coordination on irrigation and food security”. He asked the government to deal with the issue once and for all.

“I would like to ask the government to deal with this situation once and for all because we can’t be mitigating this every year and then we forget it and next time it happens,” said Mr Nooru.

“We can put it in the Supplementary Budget. He (Devolution CS) can spend Sh2 billion and that is what the government is going to do,” said the MP.

He however criticised the county governments of the 14 counties that perennially suffer drought, which he said have cumulatively received Sh140 billion but which appear to have not dealt with food shortages.

“It is morally wrong for a governor to stand in front of a camera and ask where the government is,” said Mr Duale.

He however singled out Wajir governor Ahmed Abdullahi for praise, saying he had done a splendid job drilling boreholes and ensuring water is available.

Mr Duale also hit out at Opposition MPs who used the emergency motion on the drought and food shortage debated in the House on Wednesday evening.

“We should not use the suffering of our people for politics. We can use anything else but not our people,” said Mr Duale.

The government plans to purchase one million bags of maize for its Strategic Grains Reserve (SGR) to replenish supply and avert food crisis in the Country.

This comes as more than 1.3 million people in Arid and Semi-Arid regions are faced with severe hunger after they exhausted their food stocks.

According to director of crops Dr Johnston Irungu, the government bought 500,000 bags of maize under the SGR programme last season with the current maize stock estimated at 1.3 million bags.

Reported by Vincent Achuka, Barnabas Bii and John Ngirachu