Food crisis looms in the region in spite of current season of bumper harvest

The situation was worsened by the 2007/ 2008 post election violence and droughts.

Attempts to address this have been unsuccessful due to poor implementation of the formulated policies.

“There is total disregard of empirical information on climate change, droughts and other forecasts.

“No one is listening to researchers. Decisions are based on whether they make political sense,” said James Nyoro, the managing director of the Rockefeller Foundation in the African region.

Dr Nyoro said that while researchers have raised alarm over the regular cycles of weather patterns, resulting in prolonged droughts, four-year action is not taken to prepare for these.

However, the chief executive officer of the Kenya National Federation of Agricultural Producers, John Mutunga, said the problem is bigger than just listening to researchers.

He said researchers do not listen to farmers, for whose benefit they conduct studies.

In addition, research is not linked to dissemination of the new technologies that are developed.

As a result, small-scale farmers are stuck with traditional farming methods.

It is such neglect of smallholder farmers, who are said to grow the bulk of locally produced food in Kenya, that has been cited for stifling food production.

Dr Mutunga said the power of small-scale farmers could be harnessed through setting up strong co-operatives.

Left to operate individually, the farmers have become easy prey to exploitative schemes of middlemen and can neither benefit from economies of scale in production and procurement, nor fetch better prices for their produce.

Dr Mutunga said such approaches of agricultural development have been applied successfully in other countries to boost agricultural production and reduce poverty.

“Research has shown that for every one per cent growth in agricultural production, poverty reduces by 0.6 per cent,” he said.

High poverty rates have seen increasing numbers of Kenyans relying on aid.