A sure way to make farming chic and ensure food security

(Photo: Courtesy)

The bold plan by the Jubilee Party to expand food and agricultural production by doubling the fertilizer subsidy initiative and reducing the cost to farmers to less than Sh1,500 is commendable.

To start with, Kenya is the leading exporter of agricultural and various manufactured goods in the region. However, despite the huge growth of agriculture, the Kenyan market continues to experience a lot of hardships in creating more room for higher, cheaper production.

In the colonial and post-independent eras, the Kenya Farmers Union which was founded in 1923 by White-settler farmers in Nakuru County was meant to solve the problem of marketing farmers’ produce.

leaps and bounds

Though started by a handful of farmers, the Association grew in leaps and bounds in membership and ?nanciallybecoming a farm input outlet, spreading its tentacles across the country with 65 branches. But its woes began in 1985 and though it was renamed Kenya Grain Growers Cooperative Union (KGGCU), its fortunes, however, continued to nosedive leading to its collapse, with auctioneers hot on its heels.

With the death of KFA, the Kenyan farmers have over the years faced numerous challenges including lack of access to fertilizers, farm inputs, poor transportation, poor markets and lack of information, among others.

counting losses

The farmers have been counting losses when their crops are attacked by pests and the various crop diseases at a more faster and uncontrollable rate. The sorry state of the agricultural sector has seen agriculture as a subject ignored by majority of Kenyan youngsters who see no need in pursuing the course at higher levels of education. Indeed, agriculture is wooing less people than it ever did previously. Because of the prohibitive cost of farm input like fertilizers and seeds, the return on investment has dropped significantly.

In fact, over time farmers have resorted to planting grass because of its guaranteed demand in the market.

Te pledge to support the expansion and capacity of local fertilizer manufacturing and the promise to construct 57 dams not to forget the plan to buy half of all government food requirements from small-scale farmers, are sure ways to reverse the dwindling fortunes of the once vibrant sector. Farming has been the backbone of the Kenyan economy with tea, coffee and horticulture exports big forex earners topping $2 billion in the 1990s before dipping.

With dipping income, farming and agriculture stopped being the chic.

mechanised farming

The plan to adopt mechanised farming will no doubt translate into a host of benefits. The challenge has been our reliance on rain-fed agriculture that throws up huge risks with anticipated failure or poor rainfall distribution. So a plan to move away from rain dependency will help boost food security.  

That with the proposal to put under irrigation at least one million acres in the next five years and to work with the private sector to enhance commercial agricultural production on at least 1.2 million acres will ensure we attain self-sufficiency in food.

What’s more, the proposed partnership with county governments to establish at least one agricultural produce market to provide a central outlet for agricultural produce where farmers can sell directly rather than through middle men will also boost the farmers’ income and help sustain agriculture as a mainstay of our economy.

These middlemen have connived to make a kill from the farmers. Their huge markups and unorthodox ways have ended up defrauding farmers.

After years of disillusionment, farmers have opted for other means of income generation that ensures quick returns. The Government should fast-track the creation of the Food Acquisition Programme which will mandate the National Government to buy 50 per cent of its food requirements from small holder farmers because this will end the perennial losses farmers incur due to overproduction.

Meanwhile to ensure things don’t go pear-shaped again, the hitches that affected projects such as the Galana-Kulalu Irrigation Scheme must be addressed early enough.
Ensuring wide accessibility of subsidized fertilizer before the planting season sets in is also important. Farmers must “touch the goodies”.
The proposals, once implemented, will help in the creation of employment in rural areas because they will hasten the establishment of cottage industries.

Mr Kigochi is the Farmers’ Party Leader