Food Security: Think of the Smallholder Farmers

Walk-in various farms of Western Kenya farmers, many reiterate that they have witnessed unpredictable weather conditions with long spells of drought and irregular rains that have had a negative effect on their lives.
“The story about agriculture is one that is on everybody’s mind,” she said; “agriculture needs to be positive for people, positive for productivity, and positive for the climate.”
Improving agricultural productivity is the key to reducing poverty in the country. A global consensus has emerged that agriculture must move up on the global development agenda and that investment in agriculture, especially smallholder agriculture, must be increased if the twin goals of poverty reduction and food security are to be achieved.
This requires that we work on every single aspect of the agriculture production chain from regenerating depleted soil, using better seeds and more suitable fertilizers, whether organic or industrial, to drastically improving the quality of so-called extension services that support agriculture. It implies working on marketing and storage issues, road infrastructure, and financial services.
Kenya has only exploited a fraction of its irrigation potential, and the density of rural roads today is a fraction of what Asia had in the 1950s. As a result, farmers rely almost exclusively on rain-fed farming and face exceptionally high transport and marketing costs that make a shift to more efficient farming unprofitable.
This is partly due to the low density of financial institutions in rural areas; inappropriate financial products; high cost and high risks of lending. Smallholder farmers adjust by resorting to informal credit, reduction of farm inputs, sub-optimal production techniques, and borrowing from family and friends.
As a result, there is low agricultural productivity among smallholder farmers.
Low productivity attributed to the inadequate use of productivity-enhancing technologies and inputs such as fertilizers has led to food insecurity amongst the smallholder households and worsened unemployment and poverty.
Credit is an important input into the production system and it contributes to increased food productivity. Access to credit increases the farmer’s working capital.
That would mean reversing the decline in the level of public resources spent on agriculture and rural development and investing more in agriculture.
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