What Ails Kenya’s Food System? A Policy Perspective Opinion What Ails Kenya’s Food System? A Policy Perspective
This is not housework Essay Agroecology has established itself as a concept opposed to industrial agriculture - also because it always takes society and power structures into account: It provides the framework for equal rights for women in agriculture.
After the Corona Pandemic is over Farmers should continue using Protective Equipment Article Agriculture is one of the most hazardous occupations in Kenya. Farmers are exposed to many toxic chemicals such as pesticides. While pesticides are designed to be used for pests, they have ingredients that are highly toxic to human health.
Pesticide use not sustainable for Kenya Article The debate on the use of pesticides in Kenya is one that clearly illustrates the dilemma. Under the government’s watch, the industry has been pushing for increased pesticide use, despite rising user and consumer safety concerns. International companies generate less than 6 percent of global pesticide sales in Africa, making the continent a key market for profitable trade.
The latest Issue of Perspectives is out! New Publication This edition was compiled by Heinrich Böll Foundation’s North Africa and the Transform Africa project. It is dedicated to the emerging conversation of alternative approaches that challenge the historical bias towards the industrialisation of agriculture and the food system as the main strategy to address food insecurity while preparing for a +2°C world.
Pesticides in Kenya: What’s at stake? Article Agriculture accounts for about 24% of Kenya’s GDP with an estimated 75% of the population working in the sector either directly or indirectly. As an agricultural economy and while promoting mainly conventional agriculture, Kenya’s demand for pesticides is relatively high and steadily increasing. In 2018 Kenya imported 17,803 tonnes valued at 128 Mill $. These pesticides are an assortment of insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, fumigants, rodenticides, growth regulators, defoliators, proteins, surfactants and wetting agents. Of the total pesticide imports, insecticides, fungicides and herbicides account for about 87% in terms of volume and 88% of the total cost of pesticide imports.
Kenya post budget review: What the FY2019/20 budget means for food security Analysis The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury presented the FY 2019/20 Budget Statement to the National Assembly on 13 June 2019 based on the Printed Estimates of Recurrent and Development Expenditure and the Program Based Budget (PBB), finalised earlier in May. Key insights from the budget, from a food and nutrition security perspective, are described in this article. In addition, you can download the full report and analysis of the budget for more detail.
How Kenya’s budget policies fail food, nutrition security Opinion Food security is not a problem of production. It is a problem of access and distribution; and, the power imbalance between who is able to do just that — access and distribute. Nothing makes this clearer than waking up to the news of hunger-related deaths in Turkana. There is food in Kenya, so why are the people of Turkana facing starvation?
Dream weavers: “Kenya is food secure.” There are two stories being told about food security. One story says we are food secure and the other says we are not. The stories are being told – and written – by various people with different intentions. There are those who weave dreams, where fiction reigns and happy endings preside. Then there are those who tell it like it is.
The Open Cultivation of Bt-Maize: Questions We Should Be Asking In February, Kenya edged closer to commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops after the National Biosafety Authority (NBA) approved open-air field trials of Bt-maize. If the new trials prove successful, it is likely that authorities will allow commercial cultivation. Consumers have been uninformed about their consumption of genetically engineered foods in the past and the regulating bodies that are supposed to protect our right to information fail to do so. We should ask ourselves, do we support or do we disagree with open-field testing and the move towards lifting the ban on producing genetically modified food in Kenya?
