Food Insecurity:Again?
Since the millennium development goals were set in the early 90s, food insecurity has intensified in Kenya. The insecurity is not associated with war like most African countries, but sheer negligence and lack of proper strategy to curb famine and drought. Ironically, most of the people affected by food insecurity are the pastoralist communities and small-scale maize farmers in areas where they experience one farming season. These are the producers and if anything they should be the last to complain about the food. Laikipia which is one of the affected counties once held the pride of being a major producer of maize and animal product. In fact, Ng’arua division ranked somewhere near Trans Mara and Uasin Gishu. Mostly the farmers here have adopted early maturing maize varieties like Pioneer 30G19, Panna 3M and 520 however, the harvests have averaged ten bags per acre as a result of depreciating soil fertility. After harvesting in October and November, most farmers in Laikipia a...