Expect a bumper harvest of 35-40 million bags of maize for the long rains season, Agriculture Principal Secretary Kello Harsama has said.
The PS attributed the good harvest to adequate rains and the government’s subsidised fertiliser programme.
He said through the programme, more than 500,000 farmers from 40 counties across the country have accessed more than 3.3 million bags of subsidised fertiliser at a cost of Sh3,500 per bag.
He spoke during a meeting on land commercialisation in Kenya.
Harsama said the country has been facing major challenges in food security and climate change.
“For the last five years, our food situation has not been good. In the last one year, we have had the worst drought that has killed more than two million cattle. It has also led to a severe food shortage and there has been a deficit of 10 million bags of maize in the country,” Harsama said.
“This exposed people to a major food crisis and starvation in some parts of the country, forcing the government to import food from neighbouring countries.”
The PS said in line with this, the government had gazetted importation of maize amounting to 1.4 million and 1.1 million metric tonnes of rice.
“But we were unable to get maize from neighbouring countries as we expected,” he added.
Out of 1.4 million metric tonnes of maize that had been gazetted, only 300,000 metric tonnes have been imported so far.
This, the PS said, is because the neighbouring countries that traditionally export maize to Kenya also suffered the problem of climate change and drought.
This subjected Kenya to a more severe food shortage until the onsets of the rain.
“Due to the government efforts of subsidising fertiliser and the onset of rains, the country is now expecting a good harvest this season. This is likely to seal our food deficit and if things go well, we may not even have to import maize next year,” the PS said.
The Ministry of Agriculture is working to ensure there is minimal post-harvest losses. The National Cereals and Produce Board has been mandated to provide storage of the harvested food which is going to be harvested soon.
“We are also planning to set up the strategic food reserve so that we do not have a repeat of the problems we had. When there was drought, the country had nothing in the SFR [Strategic Food Reserve] and that is why we are forced to import food. This time we are planning to ensure that the SFR is in place and working," Harsama said.
He assured Kenyans that once the long rains harvest start getting into the market, the price of maize will reduce drastically.
He said Tanzania and Uganda have dry maize which Kenya can import from as the window for importation is open until August 6.
Timothy Njagi, a senior researcher form Tegemeo Institute, said it will be a good harvest but the cost of production for many farmers remains high.
“The good harvest is likely to bring down the price of maize, but the drop may be very low due to the high cost of production,” Njagi said, adding that the price change will start being felt between October and November.
