Famine: Oh No, Not Again!
The Nation (Nairobi)
EDITORIAL
February 4, 2004
Posted to the web February 4, 2004
Nairobi

The spectre of famine that always leads to massive food imports is worrisome, and no efforts should be spared to avert it.

Reports started filtering in in December that people were starving in some parts of the country due to crop failure. It was just a matter of time before the matter exploded into a full-scale crisis.

This is not the first time the country is likely to find itself in such a precarious situation. Only three years ago, we faced a harrowing food shortage that occasioned deaths and misery to many. The Government had to cry out for food donations to help the starving, itself a dehumanising situation.

Although we know that food shortages happen every so often, the tragedy is that we hardly take measures to avert it. We are always caught flat-footed and are usually forced to resort to fire-fighting measures.

Granted, the weather patterns are beyond our control. But even when the weather is favourable and we realise bounties in harvest, we end up with losses due to poor post-harvest crop handling and storage systems.

As a result, farmers enthusiastically sell their products to middlemen for a song only to be faced with scarcity a few months down the line.

We have to revisit the whole question of food production and set out clear strategies to avoid scarcity.