Falling maize yield could turn Kenya into a food beggar

By Ally Jamah

Sammy Kitaka, 63, is a farmer in Karaba, Mbeere South District who has grown maize since he was young. But in the recent few years, he has gradually become convinced that he is better off not growing it.

This year, the entire maize crop on his ten-acre farm collapsed completely when the long rains didn’t show up. His farm stands bleakly in the blazing sun, reduced to a mass of dried out maize stalks and cracked soil.

"I have been growing maize for many years but I think it is time I started growing something else because we no longer have enough rain here, " he says.

Kitaka is not alone. Hundreds of thousands of farmers across the country are facing various degrees of maize failure or harvesting far less than normal, and bad weather is not the only reason.

Agriculture Minister William Ruto, in his August briefing on the National Food Security Situation revealed devastating figures that captured the extent of maize failure.

The minister slashed national maize production estimates from 28 million bags to 20 million this year . But more significant was the 44 per cent reduction in maize harvests in Rift Valley Province, the country’s breadbasket.

Worse still, some grain experts doubt the Government figures saying production would be far less.

A study of the maize production levels in the country in the past decade reveals a grim picture of a gradually collapsing sector such that the country can no longer produce enough maize to feed its population and instead relies heavily in imports.

Food crisis

Every year the country produces between 25-30 million bags of maize, against the required 37 million, with each Kenyan consuming an average of 98 kilograms every year. Maize is the staple food for 98 per cent of Kenyans, and its absence amounts to a food crisis.

According to some experts, the reliance on maize imports is delaying the day when Kenya will have to confront the severe challenges facing the sector, a devastating delay that may plunge the country into a catastrophic food crisis that may force Kenyans introduce drastic changes in their diet.

According to the Nairobi-based Regional Director of the International Crop Research Institute for the Arid and Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) Said Silim, this year’s crop failures are not just a one-off thing, but a result of the climate change phenomenon, which will make many parts of the country become hotter and drier, and less suitable for agriculture.

"It is unfortunate that 98% of maize in Kenya is rain-fed because it will be hit badly by climate change which will bring more droughts in the country. It is time we started exploring our options in this era of climate change. It cannot be business as usual" he cautions.

In his work with farmers in Mbeere and Makueni, which are increasingly experiencing harsher droughts, Dr Silim is helping farmers introduce new varieties of extra-drought-resistant pigeon peas, and many farmers are abandoning maize.

"In the next few years, it might just be impossible to grow rain-fed maize In Kenya even in the breadbasket regions of Rift Valley and Western provinces. We need to prepare for that scenario now and not later," he adds

Apart from climate change, maize production is increasing suffering as soils in the bread-basket regions of the country become more acidic, rendering them largely unsuitable even with good fertilizer use.

According to Steve Collins of the Kenya Maize Development Programme (KMDP), an organization funded by the US to promote maize production in the country, the high acidic state of the soil is an urgent issue that requires a radical solution.

Applying lime

" It may now be necessary to start applying lime to our soils in the main agricultural areas to reduce the acidity of the soils if we are to restore our food production to the high levels of the past. It is expansive, yes, but it is also very necessary," he says.

In fact, Collins has been agitating for this procedure for several years now but few people are listening. He recently secured funding to implement the liming programme in some parts of the Rift Valley. But he warns that the programme needs to be taken up quickly by the Government and implemented on a large scale basis to prevent agriculture from collapsing.

Again, maize production is also suffering badly as population pressure in the maize-growing regions of Rift valley and Western reduces size of farmlands into increasingly inefficient units

So real is this challenge that the majority of Kenya’s maize (70 per cent) is now being produced by small-scale farmers, who own less than five acres of land.

The number of large-scale farmers has shrank rapidly over the years and currently only about 1,000 remain.

As population swells further, the subdivisions are expected to go further and may eventually wipe out agriculture as we know it.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of Cereal Growers Association (CGA) David Nyameino, small scale farmers are not a big plus as they produce less but more expensive maize than large scale farmers, because of economies of scale.

"Small scale farmers often buy their farm inputs in small quantities and end up paying far much money than the large scale farmer who buys in bulk. They are also less likely to use the best farming practices which are usually expensive because they often lack financing. That means that maize production suffers," he says.

Domestic use

Nyameino adds that the majority of these small-scale farmers grow maize for domestic use and only a little is sold commercially, a fact that contributes to the low productions levels in the country.

"When these farmers come together, they can produce more maize in their farms and even earn more returns because they will be getting cheaper inputs and getting better markets for their produce," he says.