Food shortage is one of the problems the government has been unable to solve since independence. It very unfortunate that still now there are some families in Kenya going without food for more than one day. But how does this happen despite existence of fertile land and more than one hundred rivers viable for farming in Kenya? Here are some of the reason why we keep struggling to eradicate food shortage in our country.
Poor water storage. In Kenya it happens that people are killed by both water from floods and drought. Despite receiving enough rainfall that drains all our fertile silt into the oceans we have never solved the problem of water harvesting and storage. The water harvested and stored could in turn be used for farming during drought periods but even having poor water storage we continue wasting the little that we have.
Little attention paid to agriculture. In Kenya right now most people are reclaiming land not for farming but building plots and business houses. The percentage that is involved in agriculture is so small to feed the rest. This create food shortage problem since the government cannot produce enough alone to solve the problem.
Poor food storage systems. Most of the farmers lack proper storage systems to store their products. As a results they end up incurring losses from the food damages due to poor storage which creates the danger of food shortage in the country.
Lack of government support to the farmers. The cost of production in agricultural sector is too high which discourage those interested in farming. Also on additional to that farmers end up counting losses after selling their products to the middlemen who buy their products at a very low cost. As a result most of the farmers abandon agricultural practices and venture in other businesses. This calls for government to subsidize farmers and provide support to farmers while selling their produce. This problem of food shortage might be a hereditary problem in the country.