Day: October 1, 2021

The Lake Basin Development Authority has purchased a Sh65 million rice miller for the Lake Basin Rice Mill in Kisumu County in a move to boost production of the crop in the Western region.
The new equipment that will be installed at the Kibos Factory is seen as an attempt to address the myriad challenges facing thousands of rice farmers in Western Kenya. The intervention will end the dependence on the old and inefficient machine that has been in use since the early 90’s.
Due to aging, the machine’s capacity had stalled output from 3 to 1.1 tonnes per hour raising the production costs. This has since crippled its ability to process the bulk of the paddy harvested in the area.
However, the players have expressed optimism in the newly acquired miller that is expected to bring down the cost of production and paddy processing. Hence, improve the quality of the company’s products and make them more competitive in the market.
LBDA Chairman Odoyo Owidi lauded the milestone saying it would contribute to the sustainability of rice agribusiness, poverty alleviation and realisation of food security in Kenya.
He disclosed that the installation of the miller had kicked off and would be unveiled in under two months to serve the communities around the Lake Region Economic Bloc.
The machine that has a crushing capacity of 4 tonnes per hour will drastically increase the production rate in the region and farmers are upbeat to find a ready market for their produce to boost their income.
LBDA obtains paddy from thousands of farmers from Busia, Migori, Homa Bay, and Kisumu Counties. Demand for rice has grown at more than 12 per cent compared to wheat and maize which are at 4 and 1 per cent respectively.
The rice mill produces grade one and two Pishori and Sindano rice varieties. Other by-products are bran meal, chicken feeds and husks sold through established distributors to schools, colleges, prisons and supermarkets.
It also does third party milling for individual growers and institutions like the National Cereals Produce Board, the Kenya National Trading Corporation, Kodiaga and Kibos prisons.
Kisumu County government has also put up a spirited effort to rev up the sector by allocating Sh30 million to procure a new rice mill.
The County Chief Officer, Department of Agriculture and Irrigation, Dr Paul Omanga said the new rice milling plant will be installed early next year to complement LBDA and the Western Kenya Rice Mill in Ahero.
With these interventions, the region would collect over 24,000 tonnes of paddy for milling every year.

Source: Kenya News Agency

When the National Treasury imposed a 30 percent duty on potatoes imported into Kenya from outside the umbrella market of the East Africa Community in early June 2021, potato farming in Taita Taveta County was, by and large, an alien idea.
Defending the move, Treasury Cabinet Secretary, Ukur Yatani said that the imposed duty would go a long way to protect local potato farmers.
“We’re looking out for our local potato farmers, who have been sidelined because of imports from South Africa and Egypt,” CS Yatani defended.
Before the directive by the National Exchequer, a measly 500 farmers in the entire Taita Taveta County grew potatoes though on small scale.
Today, barely three months after the directive, the county now boasts of 3,800 potato farmers spread across the slopes of Wundanyi and the plains of Mwatate and Taveta.
Although the shifting to potato farming has largely been due to favourable farming and market conditions, some farmers are ditching maize farming due to the time it takes to mature.
On average, maize takes six months from planting to harvesting in Wundanyi and Taveta, and farmers only grow it in one season each year. On the other hand, potatoes take three months to mature and be ready to harvest, and farmers can plant for at least three seasons in a year.
“I must say the support we’re getting from the national and county governments and research entities has a lot to do with the shifting to potato farming. But we’re also running away from maize that takes six months to mature, and we only plant it in one season per year. Potatoes mature faster, and the prices are better,” said Rose Shighadi, a budding potato farmer from Werugha.
In the national outlook, potatoes have climbed to clinch the second position in the staple foods’ scales in Kenya after maize.
The efforts by the National Government have received a shot in the arm from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) through its Accelerated Value Added Chain Development (AVCD) programme.
The AVCD programme has been a game changer in not only shaping the farmers’ mentality on potato farming, but also providing high-grade seeds, technical support, value addition procedures, as well as market research for the produce.
Farmers in Taita Taveta, who have undergone the AVCD training, are heaping praises to the programme as it has improved their yields and increased revenue.
“I’m happy that I took up the challenge to grow potatoes. Before the training, I only managed slightly below five tonnes per acre. But after undergoing the AVCD training and getting high-quality seeds, I now harvest up to fourteen tonnes per acre. The prices are good too, and I think many more farmers will continue making the switch,” shared Simeon Mwaghalo, a potato farmer in Wundanyi.
Potato farming in Kenya holds the potential for an economic revolution if more farmers join the sector. Kenya’s potato seed production stands at 6,700 tonnes against an annual domestic demand of 30,000 tonnes.
The severe shortage in seeds has, in the past, forced farmers to recycle previous crops, a practice that further cripples the seed supply in the country.
At a current output of two million tonnes of potatoes each year, Kenya can shore up the production to eight million tonnes annually by encouraging and supporting more farmers to join potato farming.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Immediate action is needed to respond to the severe drought that is ravaging communities in Kenya’s dry regions – categorized as Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) – the UN’s humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) said on Friday.
Two and half million people are already experiencing deep food insecurity after two back-to-back rainy seasons failed.
By November, it will have nearly tripled since the same time last year, OCHA warned.  “People in the ASAL region are facing a dire situation”, said Stephen Jackson, UN Resident Coordinator for Kenya, as he launched the humanitarian Flash Appeal for the Kenya Drought response.
Speaking from Nairobi Mr. Jackson said people in Wajir, Northern Kenya, had not seen rain for over a year. Acute malnutrition rates are rising rapidly, posing an imminent risk to children and pregnant and lactating women. 
Lives ‘upended’ 
He described how a mother at the El-Nur Clinic supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) “told me she could not feed her children that morning, and does not know if she would be able to put food on the table that evening.
Many of her livestock have already died because of the drought”. And “all of this comes on top of the 2017 drought, COVID and the recent locust infestations”, he noted. 
“I met with women, men, and children in Wajir, who all told me how their lives are being upended by the drought.
“It is imperative that we act now, working closely with communities and community-led organizations, to alleviate the suffering that has been caused by back-to-back poor rainy seasons”, Mr. Jackson said, reiterating that “should the October ‘short rains’ now fail – as they are projected to do – Kenya will be facing an even deeper crisis”.
Kenya Flash Appeal 
The Kenya Drought Flash Appeal calls for nearly $139.5 million to deliver relief to 1.3 million people whose lives have been hardest hit by the crisis.
An estimated $28.5 million has already been received from donors, including $5 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund.
The appeal brings together 45 humanitarian partners, including UN agencies, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), national NGOs and the Kenya Red Cross Society, to complement the Government’s response to the drought crisis in the ASAL region.
Needs growing
Mr. Jackson pointed out that Kenya’s Government has already been responding to the crisis. Ksh 1.7 billion (around $17 million) in public funds has already been allocated and Kenya has announced a further Ksh two billion ($20 million).
Since January the UN and international partners have already been reaching almost half a million people to protect their lives and their livelihoods, he said, “But it is not enough”.
Kenya urgently needs approximately $60 million for food and job security, $40 million for nutrition, $20 million for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), some $10 million for health investments, and $7 million for education and other related sectors, the UN Resident Coordinator for Kenya said.
“We aim to deliver a full package of support in counties that will face the deepest and most severe needs in the months to come”.
‘Time to act is now’
Welcoming how the UN system in Kenya had already come together to “respond as one”, Mr. Jackson insisted on the urgency of the situation: “The time to act is now”. International support will save lives and livelihoods, he said.
The “severe impact of the global climate emergency is being felt across the Horn of Africa” he noted.
Referring to the recent Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change report he pointed out that “once sporadic droughts in Africa are becoming much more frequent, more severe and more long-lasting”.
Neither Kenya nor the African continent were major culprits in creating the climate emergency, he said, yet they are amongst those most heavily impacted by it. “We must do everything we can, immediately, to protect the lives of those already impacted by this deep and cruel drought”.

Source: United Nations

1 October 2021, Rome – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Federal Government of Switzerland have announced the winners of the 2021 edition of the annual International Innovation Award for Sustainable Food Systems, a joint initiative designed to encourage and celebrate innovation and entrepreneurs who successfully implement outstanding projects in the agriculture sector.

The awards were announced in a virtual ceremony with the participation of FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and Christian Hofer, Director-General of the Federal Office for Agriculture of Switzerland. The ceremony was held on the first day of the flagship event (1-5 October, 2021) of the World Food Forum – a youth-led movement and network to transform or agri-food systems.

The main Digitalization and Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems award is given for innovations that impact more than one level of the supply chain and strengthen the link between farmers and consumers. A second prize is also awarded for Innovations that Empower Youth in Agriculture and Food Systems. The prize for each award is $30 000, allowing winners to take their business to the next level.

This year’s award for Digitalization and Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems went to Ifarm360, a start-up enabling investors to crowd-fund smallholder farmers in Kenya. In addition to access to finance, Ifarm360 offers smallholder farmers crop advice and supervision, as well as farming inputs and equipment such as solar irrigation kits. Ifarm360 connects smallholder farmers, the crowd investors and off-takers, creating a win-win-win business model.

Special mention was given to Enveritas for using digital technology and innovation to conduct sustainability verification of unorganized and underserved smallholder coffee farmers globally.

The Innovations that Empower Youth in Agriculture and Food Systems award was split this year between two projects, both of which received equally high rankings from the Screening Committee.

Access Agriculture AISBL was recognised for enabling young people individually or as a team, to use solar powered technology to show farmer-to-farmer training videos in local languages in remote villages with no electricity, no internet access and poor mobile signal. Access Agriculture is working with local communities across the Global South, while also improving the environment using agroecological principles.

Access Agriculture shared the prize with Bountifield International, who offer young people in rural areas new opportunities as postharvest technology entrepreneurs providing a fee-for-service to farmers to process, preserve and sell their crops. Bountifield’s ‘business in a box’ model equips them with needed technology, access to financing and information they need to drive agri-business value addition, to reduce food loss, and to increase growth across rural Africa.

FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu congratulated the winners, adding that the Award “highlights the importance of innovation and youth as key drivers to transform agri-food systems. FAO is working to engaging and empowering youth to transform our agri-food systems.”

“I wish to convey my appreciation to the Government of Switzerland for the effective partnership which has led to this successful outcome. It also affirms the value of our shared goal – to encourage game-changing solutions by innovative approaches and people,” he said.

Christian Hofer, Director-General of the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture, said the “Swiss-FAO International Innovation Award aims at honouring already existing projects that proved to be successful and have a potential to scale up or spill over to other parts of the food systems. This kind of support is important because there is a need for a larger number of well-functioning innovative projects to achieve food systems transformation.”

“I’m convinced that transformative change is only possible of it engages young people and if it exploits the potential of digitalization in the agriculture and food sector,” he said.

FAO and the Federal Government of Switzerland first launched the awards in 2018, as a way to encourage innovation by publicly recognising best practices in the field of sustainable food and agriculture. Each year individuals, private companies and institutions are invited to submit a nomination for an innovation that is contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 1, No Hunger. This year, the awards were part of the World Food Forum’s flagship event, celebrating youth-led actions and boosting awareness, fostering engagement and mobilizing resources for food systems transformation. Find out more about the winners and past editions of the awards

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations