The primary focus of this report is to evaluate Kenyan agricultural and food policy. Although the agricultural sector is the backbone of economic development, it continues to face challenges such as food security and nutrition development. Despite having policies to tackle these problems, the disparity between intent and action widens. This paper reviews the Kenyan agriculture and food policy strategies over the last four decades. Policy plays a significant role not only to improve the efficiency of public investment but is also vital for incentivizing private sector and farming investments in agriculture.
From the overview of the policies, recommendations will be proposed for a way forward for Kenya with an aim to improve the overall perspective of food policy in the country and thus improve overall economic health.
Approximately half of Kenya’s population, approximately 40 millions, are food and nutrition insecure. This is closely linked to poverty. Declining food production implies that Kenya is nationally food insecure. Over 10 million people in Kenya endure chronic food insecurity and poor nutrition, and about 2.5 million people require emergency food assistance at any one time. Nearly 30% of Kenya’s children are classified as undernourished and nutritional with widespread nutritional deficiencies. The emerging dilemma of food and nutrition insecurity is linked to agricultural production.
Roughly 79% of Kenya’s population live in rural regions where agriculture dominates. Previous Kenyan food policies have had limited success in tackling food and nutrition insecurity. Although agriculture reached a growth peak in 2006 of 6.5%, the strategies have not achieved food security for the country and micronutrient-rich foods have been insignificantly promoted. Agriculture
The Essay on Toward a Typology of Food Security in Developing Countries,Governance Division, and International Food Policy Research Institute.
Global Food Supplies Introduction Question 1 Globalization and technology enable food producers to access a wider market, increase opportunities, and competition with food supply and consumption. Countries and agricultural multinationals position their supply systems, according tothe global market. Food supply requires a systematic analysis of the food production processes and ...
Agriculture is the engine of economic development in Kenya and the sector of most importance, contributing 24% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 27% of GDP indirectly through manufacturing, distributions and other service related sectors. It is the largest employer of the economy, employing 60% of the national labour force. Approximately 79% of the Kenya population rely solely on agricultural to derive their livelihoods. Roughly 45% of the governments’ revenue comes from agriculture and this sector supplies about 75% of industrial raw materials and greater than 50% of the export earnings. The main goals of the agricultural policy in Kenya revolve around: Declining agricultural performance:
Declining performance of agriculture in terms of growth has been a major concern facing policy creators. As a sector that engages about 75% of the country’s labour force, such a decline implies lower levels of employment, incomes and more importantly, food insecurity for a vast majority of Kenyans. Over 51% of the rural labour forces are engaged in small-scale agriculture and majority are women. Despite the decline, agriculture has continued to support livelihoods of over two thirds of the labour force, primarily because performance in agriculture since the 1980s wasn’t linked with any real transformation in the economy. This would have ensured an improvement in the share of other sectors in GDP and employment as agriculture’s share declined.
Consequently, incomes have continued to decline as poverty continues to establish itself in the rural areas. Enhancement on Irrigation and over-reliance on rain fed agriculture: It is estimated 17% of the country’s land is high potential agricultural land where majority of crop and dairy production take place, meaning that increasing agricultural production will have to stem from intensification of land use in high potential lands. High reliance on rain fed agriculture vulnerable to weather variability leads to fluctuations in production and incomes, especially in rural areas.
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Utilisation of irrigation potential is low with less than 7% of the cropped land under irrigation. Poor rain leads to poor agricultural performance and subsequent famines affecting large sections of the population. Droughts and floods have amplified in frequency and intensity, resulting in livestock deaths and high crop failure. In addition, increased land degradation has also decreased land resilience thereby intensifying the effects of droughts and floods leading to famine. Inadequate diversification of Agricultural Commodities:
Few commodities include; coffee, tea, maize, wheat, beef and dairy which provide livelihood for over 85% of the population, coffee and tea alone provide 45% of the wage employment in the sector. The sector is characterised by weak integration, worsened by weak institutions and support services for agricultural exports. Primary agricultural products account for 64% of the country’s total exports. Despite potential for exports of fresh produce, it only accounts for 3% of the total production of fresh produce, mainly due to limited diversification and low value addition in agricultural exports.
Challenges for the diversification of exports include; poor outdated technology that hinders the processing of agricultural products into high value products, limited access to breeds with high yield potentials, WTO regulations that increase the cost of imported seeds and planting materials, limited capacity by quality assurance bodies to ensure compliance with international standards and the imposition of non-tariff barriers to trade. Kenya has yet to take advantage of its agricultural potential, which is necessary when diversifying into non-traditional commodities.
The Term Paper on Bangladesh Export Policy
General Provisions for Import Regulation of Import- Import of goods under this Order shall be regulated as follows: * Unless otherwise specified in this order, the items banned for import in the list shall not be importable: Provided that, those items which are importable on fulfillment of certain conditions specified in the list shall be importable on fulfillment of those conditions. Except the ...
This would improve and stabilise agri-output, productivity, incomes, significantly check famine and thus food insecurity. The country’s varied climatic conditions are suitable for diversifying agriculture into specialised niches, which have not been exploited to their potential despite efforts made in horticulture and fruits. A vast fish potential has remained unexploited. The inability to effectively monitor and enforce compliance and rules governing offshore territorial waters has curtailed full exploitation of the offshore fishing potential. Food Policy
The overall goal of food policy is to ensure that all Kenyans enjoy safe food in sufficient quantity and quality to satisfy their nutritional needs for optimal health. The policy provides a structure covering all the four elements of food security, accessibility, availability, stability and meeting nutritional requirements. The Broad objectives of the food policies has been to
To achieve excellent nourishment for optimum health of all Kenyans. To improve the quality and quantity of food accessible, available and affordable to all. To protect helpless populations using innovative and cost-effective security and emergency relief programs linked to long-term development. To develop performance arrangements that would guarantee success.
