Children lining up for relief food. [Photo/unep.org]
Kenya is among African countries with high serious hunger rates, an agricultural conference heard yesterday. Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development director Milton Ayieko said the country’s hunger rate stands at 29.1 percent against a global index of 18.2 percent, thus referred to as one of the worst in Africa.
Data from the Institute indicates that 55 countries globally are suffering from chronic hunger of below 20 percent. “Most countries in Africa are in a chronic hunger situation.
This has been exacerbated by low crop productivity which currently stands at 20 percent in most food crops,” Ayieko said during the closure of a two-day conference on “Transforming Agriculture for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Livelihoods” organized by Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development.
He said local maize farmers only produce 1.6 tonnes in a hectare compared to a potential production of six tonnes. He observed that due to lack of crucial information on good agricultural practices, farmers either underuse and overuse fertilizer and manure and are hardly carrying out soil tests to gauge fertility levels.
“You are likely to find a farmer applying only 2kgs of fertilizer on an acre and expect to harvest adequate produce. While other farmers apply more than 200kgs of fertilizer in an acre against the recommended rate of 100 kg,” he said.
“Key hindrance to collecting of the needed data is failure by both levels of governments to offer extension services hence exposing farmers to more serious challenges, for instance, emergence of new pests and diseases and rise in temperature,” he said National and County governments, Njagi said have been relying on outdated data that does not respond to the current realities.