The State of Food Insecurity (Sofi) 2014 report stated that the World Food Summit goal of halving the number of undernourished people by 2015 cannot be met. What does that mean for Kenya and East Africa as a whole?

Currently, statistics show that the number of undernourished people in the world is falling by an average of six million per year, which is well below the yearly target of 22 million necessary to achieve the World Food Summit goal.

However, 63 countries, mostly from the developing world, have reached the hunger target in the first Millennium Development Goal. Sustained political commitment at the highest level, with food security and nutrition as top priorities, is a prerequisite for hunger eradication. Good news in Africa is that eradication of hunger is a top priority of the African Union, evidenced by African Heads of State committing to end hunger on the continent by 2025 in July 2014 at the African Union summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

In Kenya and East Africa, we must continue working with the governments to ensure the right to food for all. We highly appreciate the political commitment towards ensuring appropriate food security policies, programmes and laws at country level are developed and adopted. In addition, we need to engage better with the private sector, improve access to agricultural inputs, land, services, technologies, markets and promote investment in agriculture towards increasing the agricultural productivity in Kenya. Last but not least, we need to continue promoting rural development and nutrition programmes for the most vulnerable, especially to address micronutrient deficiencies in mothers and children under five.

Recently there have been reports that there is famine looming in Somalia, South Sudan and in Kenya. How can we better prepare for these recurrent crises?

One thing that Somalia, South Sudan and Kenya have in common is that a large percentage of their territory is arid or semi-arid, with majority of the most vulnerable farmers practising pastoralism. Understanding the factors that contribute to a famine situation determines how well we can prepare for or avert the next crisis while better support those pastoralists and farmers most at risk, to have better access to markets, adopt good agricultural practices in the wet season, like fodder production, grain storage, proper animal stocking and soil conservation methods. This contributed to helping them become more resilient to recurring drought and famine. In some cases, a change in livelihood is what is required to survive the drastic changes in climatic conditions we continue to witness.It is now not uncommon for pastoralists in the three countries to take up farming and other agricultural enterprises as an alternative to livestock keeping. At FAO, we endeavour to support them with agricultural inputs, skills and knowledge, which we have been doing through the Pastoral Farmer Field School methodology in the arid and semi arid lands (Asals) of Kenya.

What does the Country Programming 2014 – 2017 Framework for Kenya aim to achieve?

FAO’s mission in Kenya is the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. The FAO Country Programming Framework for Kenya 2014 – 2017, or CPF, outlines priority areas to guide our partnership with and support to the Government of Kenya at national and county level, bringing together innovative international good practices and global standards with national and regional expertise towards the achievement of this goal.

How will FAO work with and/or support the county governments?

FAO is already supporting county governments within the devolved structure, offering technical expertise in facilitating their planning processes. For example, we have supported on invitation from the county government, the County Integrated Development Plans for Isiolo, Marsabit, Samburu and Turkana. In particular, we have worked closely with Marsabit County in the development of the county’s Agriculture Strategic Plan 2013-2017.

Another example of FAO support to counties is within a project we are implementing with support from the European Union dubbed ‘Support for Land and Natural Resource Governance in Communal Lands of Kenya’. The main objective of the project is to secure and improve equitable access to land and natural resources for food security and socio-economic development of agro-pastoral communities in the Asals of Kenya. Within the selected pilot counties of Tana River and Turkana, we are collaborating closely with the National Lands Commission, county leadership and other stakeholders in addressing issues of land and management of natural resources issues in all areas of development in the counties. From the results of the pilot, a larger, long-term land programme that can be up scaled in progressive phases to all counties in Kenya is envisioned in the years to come.

How does FAO work with governments and influence agricultural policy making?

As a knowledge organisation employing a global network of agricultural experts and research information, FAO brings to the table diverse technical knowledge, expertise and experiences that can be modelled or replicated as the situation requires. At the invitation of the government, we jointly pool resources and information with the government in identifying priority areas and identifying solutions to the challenges identified. Policies should be well informed statistically, so a lot goes into gathering the required information and data. Data is quite simply the basic analysis of agriculture and other business flows within the sector. Agricultural data gives the best guide for information on the development of infrastructure such as irrigation, location of markets, market pricing, distribution of farmers and products, levels of supply and demand and so on. This information determines how well informed policies that are developed by the government for the benefit of the people are and how effective they ultimately will be. This is one of the reasons why we will be collaborating with the government and other stakeholders in preparing for a Census of Agriculture in Kenya.

In July 2014, at the African Union summit in Equatorial Guinea, African Heads of States committed to end hunger in the continent by 2025. What does this mean for FAO working in Kenya?

Kenya, as a member of the AU, was party to the commitment to end hunger in Africa by 2025. This means that political commitment of African governments is increasingly being translated into comprehensive and effective action. This will allow African countries to commit substantial government budgets towards agricultural interventions. No single country can be food secure if their neighbour still suffers from hunger. Strengthening regional integration, improving systems for evaluating public policies, and integrating food security into broader development efforts is essential in the eradication of hunger in Africa. This means that Kenya stands to benefit from regional initiatives addressing the issue, such as the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund (ASTF), which is a facility initiated and supported by African Governments and partners for the implementation of national and regional food security and nutrition initiatives. Currently in implementation in Eastern Africa is an ASTF-funded project dubbed ‘Promoting Nutrition Sensitive Agricultural Diversification to Fight Malnutrition and Enhance Youth employment Opportunities in Eastern Africa’, worth an investment of US$4 million (Sh364 million) and is currently being implemented in Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.

What can Kenya learn and adopt from other countries that have managed to meet the Millennium Development Goal on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger?

A common learning from examining the progress in all of the countries that have met MDG 1 is that hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition are complex problems that cannot be resolved by a single stakeholder or sector. While different countries have had very different experiences with food security and nutrition conditioned by different levels of political stability and economic growth, as well as distinctive cultural, social and environmental conditions, all have addressed food insecurity by simultaneously enhancing agricultural productivity, incomes, promoting rural development and facilitating access to adequate food for those in need and effective social protection.

Addressing the immediate and underlying causes of hunger will require a variety of actions across a range of sectors, including agricultural production and productivity, rural development, forestry, fisheries, social protection, trade and markets. With concerted efforts between the governments and all stakeholders in the agricultural sector, it is possible to create an enabling environment that promotes sustainable increases in agricultural outputs, good food distribution with minimisation of food loss, towards establishing inclusive programmes that support food security and the right to food.

Does FAO support lifting of the ban on GMO in Kenya or staying with it?

Humans have always been changing the nature of organisms, for example, by cross breeding animals, grafting different types of plants, among other ways. By definition, a genetic genetically modified organism, or GMO, is a plant, animal or microorganism whose genetic material has been altered in a way that does not occur in nature. This alteration is done through the use of technology that allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another and also between different species.

Food produced from or using GM Organisms are often referred to as GM foods. Depending on their use and purpose, GMOs have been introduced in other parts of the world to increase resistance against plant diseases caused by insects or viruses and increased tolerance towards herbicides. Before we can endorse or discourage their use we need to fully understand their positive and negative impact. We must have extensive scientific research on the effects that their introduction and use is likely to have on the society, the environment, trade and markets.

FAO together with partners like the World Health Organisation, continuously host expert consultations on the evaluation of GM foods and provide technical advice for the International Codex Guidelines on Safety Assessment of GM Foods. This information is made available to countries considering their use for proper assessment of their suitability.

What role can the youth play in agriculture?

In Kenya, agriculture contributes about 24 per cent to the GDP and provides employment either directly or indirectly to more than 75 per cent of young men and women in rural areas. Bearing in mind that young people under 24 years represent more than 60 per cent of Africa’s population, with more than 70 per cent living on less than $2 (Sh182) a day, their involvement in agriculture is crucial.

They are the key to feeding the future population on the continent. Agriculture has the potential to boost employment opportunities for young women and men, provide their income and access to food, increase the availability of local produce and boosts the capacity of local agricultural value chains. This ultimately results in per capita income growth and contributes to the realisation of food and nutrition security in the country. More and more in Kenya we are witnessing a shift towards farming as a profitable economic enterprise amongst the youth, such as in the poultry and aquaculture value chains, a sign that we are headed in the right direction as far as engaging the youth in agriculture is concerned.

You career spans more than 15 years working for FAO and other organisations in Eastern and Western African countries. What is the most rewarding part of your job?

In the 30 years I have been working in FAO and other organisations, I consider that the best part of my job is when we get it right. Our work has a very direct and lasting impact on the lives of farmers who depend wholly on agriculture for their livelihoods so there is really very little room for error. The job of eradicating hunger in the world is a calling, it becomes a part and parcel of your life, which is why it is not uncommon to find yourself dedicating more time than is required in finding solutions that work. It is very rewarding to see that our work with farmers is enabling them to grow as individuals, improve their farms, increase their output, profit from their hard work and they live better, healthier and more prosperous lives.

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How FAO measures food insecurity

Food insecurity exists when all people, at all times, do not have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. It is a complex phenomenon influenced by a host of factors such as the socio-economic and political environment, health and sanitation, conflict, natural disasters among others. The definition of food insecurity encompasses many elements and so multiple indicators must be considered in the measurement of its prevalence or extent.

For a people to be food insecure, their food intake must be below the minimum energy requirements and show signs of energy and nutrition deficiency. In measuring food insecurity, FAO measures the distribution of dietary energy consumption on a per person basis from the daily dietary energy supply per capita in a country, derived from food balance sheets, averaged over three years. We also take into account other influencing factors to explain the causes of food insecurity such as conflicts and natural disasters.

Source: the Star

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.