This archive report was first published on 11 June 2020.
Kenya's Budget Falls Short on Food Security ¶
The 2020/21 budget in Kenya is expected to address food insecurity, but critics say the proposed allocation is insufficient. The country is facing a grim picture, with 2.6 million people in need of emergency food assistance in 2019, up from 1.1 million in 2015.
The National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, Ukur Yatani, has promised to prioritize food security, but the proposed allocation is four percent less than the previous year's allocation. The Agriculture Rural and Urban Development (ARUD) sector received 49.4 percent of its sectoral requirements, despite major announcements made against food insecurity.
Kenya has never met the Maputo Declaration target of allocating 10 percent of its national budget to agriculture, despite the sector employing over 40 percent of the total population and more than 70 percent of the rural population. The low budgetary allocation has been a concern, with allocation dwindling at 1.8 percent in 2020/21, 1.6 percent in 2019/20, and 1.5 percent in 2018/19, down from 3.4 percent in 2013/14.
Experts say the budget should focus on small-holder farmers, who dominate the agricultural sector in a country where over 70 percent of national production is for household use. They also recommend increasing funding towards Livestock Products Value Addition and associated marketing, and reintroducing extension services to enhance productivity in an environment of decreasing land sizes.
Additionally, the government should reassess the Tax Bill 2020 and revert to VAT exempt on materials and equipment for the construction of grain storage. The budget should also consider establishment of rural storage infrastructure, such as cold storage, grain and tuber stores at the ward level, to enable farmers hold their produce until prices improve.
Another aspect that should be reviewed in the budget is the definition of bread in the Tax Bill 2020, which implies that bread of any other form mostly consumed by poor households attracts VAT. This means defeating local food security innovations, such as grinding locally available materials to make various forms of bread.
Mr. Gachoki, a lecturer at Kenyatta University and a public policy expert, emphasizes the need for maximum support to research leading to the availability of locally manufactured bio-control and bio-pesticide products, as well as of safer synthetic insecticides that have been fully tested with associated training in their safe and economical use.
