Agricultural production in Kenya’s Western and North Rift areas is at a crossroads. Persistent food shortages are now being amplified by climate change, rapid population growth, scarcity of arable land, and rising food prices.
Most parts of the region are headed for a devastating economic meltdown. Associated with this meltdown are looming food crises, hunger, and malnutrition. These are largely rural-based economies that rely on commercial maize farming, smallholder subsistence mixed farming, small-scale intensive horticulture and inter-community trade.
Food production has failed to keep pace with human population growth. Nearly 6 million Kenyans are chronically hungry.
The agriculture sector is characterized by the dominance of small-scale farming, with 3.5 million small-scale farmers with land size averaging 2.5 acres. Small-scale farmers account for over 75 per cent of the total agricultural production and over 50 per cent of market output.
Yet, Kenya remains a low-income food deficit country with an overall national prevalence of poverty at 56 per cent in rural areas and 49 per cent for urban populations.
Poverty has risen from 3.2 million in 1972/73 to 11.5 million in 1994, 12.5 million in 1997 and an estimated 15 million today, according to the Innovative Financial Instruments for Agriculture Strategy and Plan 2008-2010.
There are good reasons to expect agricultural growth to reduce poverty. The agricultural development raises returns to land, the only real asset that any rural poor in Africa own.
“The importance of agriculture and other natural resource-based livelihoods for poverty reduction goes far beyond its direct impact on poor people’s incomes. Evidence shows that increasing agricultural productivity benefits millions across the world, through higher incomes and cheaper food,” according to Gareth Thomas MP, UK Minister for International Development, in his Innovation, agricultural growth and poverty reduction essay published by The Smith Institute- Going for Growth science, technology and innovation in Africa.
Moreover, the growth of food output should push down the price of staple foods to the immense benefit of the poor, who are overwhelmingly net food buyers even in rural areas.
Western and North Rift are expected to be the country’s breadbasket; however, this is not the case. They still rely heavily on the government to feed it.
The main reason is that the most productive arable lands have been converted into sugar cane and maize zones with no proper policies to factor in the aspect of food crops.
In the last four decades, more than half of Western Kenya’s land has been abandoned due to soil degradation. Millions of tonnes of fertile soil are lost by soil erosion at a fast rate.
Dr. Keith Shepherd of the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) notes: “Over twenty years, land degradation can mean the difference between productive land and land that becomes stone.”
If vegetation is removed, the process speeds up, and the soil’s physical structure starts to degrade and collapse, depleting vital nutrients. Reversing the process of desertification is difficult and expensive.
The key, says Shepherd, “Is to identify the problem early enough to prevent switches that occur from a very healthy ecosystem to a degraded state.”
The key, says Shepherd, “Is to identify the problem early enough to prevent switches that occur from a very healthy ecosystem to a degraded state.”
The challenge, therefore, is how to increase productivity among subsistence smallholder farmers. The opportunity and innovation lie in the role of policy, technology, research support and institutional arrangements that can aggregate production on small farms rather than aggregate the land resource base.
My sense is that the traditional focus on large holdings as a prerequisite for the modernization and profitability of African agriculture is misplaced.
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, according to the Draft Report of the Consultation on the Eighth Replenishment of IFAD’s Resources.
In fact, if Kenya is to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal, to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, the agriculture sector needs to grow much faster and maintain an annual growth rate of 6.2 per cent.
This requires that we work on every aspect of the agriculture production chain, from regenerating depleted soil using better seeds and ore fertilizers (whether organic or industrial) to drastically improving the quality of so-called extension services supporting agriculture. It implies working on marketing and storage issues, road infrastructure and financial services.
Only by tackling all those aspects at once, involving both the public and private sectors, will we improve agriculture productivity sustainably.
Weaning smallholder farmers from subsistence maize production to high-value export crops is something that must be done to extend the benefits of a globalized economy to the majority of the Western and North Rift rural population.
Local product markets remain weak, uncertain, and inaccessible, with high transaction costs arising from poor market information and poor infrastructure.
Furthermore, owing to high transportation costs, lack of credit, storage facilities and risks in supplying small-scale farmers, agriculture inputs and financial services are low amongst smallholder farmers in Kenya.
Small-scale farmers in rural areas of Western and North Rift have not been able to access financial services for acquiring far inputs among other needs to improve farm productivity.
This is partly due to the low density of financial institutions in rural areas, inappropriate financial products, high costs, and high lending risks.
This is partly due to the low density of financial institutions in rural areas, inappropriate financial products, high costs, and high lending risks.
Smallholder farmers adjust by resorting to informal credit, reducing farm inputs, sub-optimal production techniques and borrowing from family and friends. This limits investment in far equipment, capital, and other agricultural assets and inputs.
In addition, small-scale farmers concentrate on low-risk, low-return activities because they cannot access start-up capital and cannot transfer risks.
As a result, smallholder farmers’ low productivity due to the inadequate use of enhancing technologies and inputs such as fertilizers has led to food insecurity amongst the smallholder households and worsened unemployment and poverty.
As a result, smallholder farmers’ low productivity due to the inadequate use of 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 in the production system and contributes to increased food productivity. Access to credit increases the farmer’s working capital enabling the farmers to buy productivity-enhancing inputs such as good quality seeds, fertilizers and chemicals.
The challenge for agricultural financial institutions is to develop low-cost ways of reaching farmers, especially smallholders.
The challenge for agricultural financial institutions is to develop low-cost ways of reaching farmers, especially smallholders.
Consequently, farmers, especially smallholder farmers, have trouble accessing credit, obtaining information on market opportunities or new technologies, purchasing certain inputs and accessing product markets.
There is a need for farmers’ education to sensitize them on existing and new technologies they can use to improve production.
This is especially among rural farmers.
Eventually, this would help strengthen and establish producers and trade unions: providing farmers with professional advice, current market information and input results in an organized way, controlling market pricing and products, and providing farmers with loans at lower interest rates while improving transportation, storage, and processing standards.
This is especially among rural farmers.
Eventually, this would help strengthen and establish producers and trade unions: providing farmers with professional advice, current market information and input results in an organized way, controlling market pricing and products, and providing farmers with loans at lower interest rates while improving transportation, storage, and processing standards.
More food must be produced to contain the impact of soaring prices on poor consumers, boost productivity, and expand production to create more income and employment opportunities for the rural poor.
Smallholder farmers must have proper access to land and water resources and essential inputs such as seeds and fertilizers.
To ensure that small farmers and rural households benefit from higher food prices, a policy environment that relaxes the constraints facing the private sector, farmers and traders must be created. That would mean reversing the decline in the level of public resources spent on agriculture and rural development and investing more in agriculture.
If agriculture is to be the engine for rural development and prosperity for the millions currently ensnared in the poverty trap, we must build new institutions that reach the invisible, underserved smallholder farmers.
2 Comments
The key point I see here is that women are the ones who tend
work the land, particularly in the smallest, most vulnerable shambas, and the ones most likely to feel the impact of food insecurity and lack of resources first.
Chamas or self help groups focusing on women in the rural areas can offer opportunities for greater impact, in my opinion, and we can discover if this might true.
Men own the land and hold the leases that can act as collateral for loans and/or credit facilities, yet it is the woman who works the land and must feed and clothe the children from her earnings.
Farmer information, training and other programs overlook this aspect and focus on the official farmer (the land owner or whatever name the records might have) thus the information on seeds or improved planting techniques, or methods to improve yield or income stream, bypasses the person actually working the land.
What financial tools are there that focus on women who farm?
Women who are the market traders?
The women who are the bulkers and the aggregators?
They have even less opportunities than the males for access to financial or information support on credit, loans or other programs.
I believe that if we can pilot a program in even one small region, focusing on improving the income stream of all the women across the value chain from the farm to the middlewoman buyer/aggregator through to the market woman and ultimately to whichever transporter, then we
might be able to clearly demonstrate how this could have a greater impact on a family's food security, quality of life and wellbeing.
@Niti Bhan I greatly appreciate, the time and effort to go through the write up. Now I do understand why women are vital in the whole chain of production something the policy makers need to look into.