KENYA TO IMPORT MAIZE TO AVERT CRISIS
NAIROBI - The Government has been told to prepare for importation of maize before end of this month when the country is set to run out of stock.
Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, a public think-tank, said in a statement that importation of the cereal would help shield consumers from ravages of drought and at the same time avert a defective subsidy programme like one in 2017.
Already, in the last two weeks, retailers have adjusted the price of 2kg packet of flour to Sh120, up from Sh90.
Latest Ministry of Agriculture bulletin indicate that late rains onset, poor distribution and erratic rain patterns affected the crop planted early in most parts of the country.
It notes that planting was delayed in some parts of the country and this is expected to cause a reduction in total production.
According things are so to Tegemeo, dire that the country will be left with so little, if any, stock of maize by end of this month.
It wants the Government to quickly remedy the situation by arranging for importation of the cereal to plug the deficit.
It has also called for tracking and making available data that would be useful in helping the Government make critical decisions on food security.
“For instance, what amounts should the country target to import in the second half of the year? From which countries, given that neighbouring countries are unlikely to have the expected quantities to fill up the deficit?” said Tegemeo.
In the scenarios that the think-tank built, the most optimistic is based on Kenya Revenue Authority import numbers, with a balance of 3.6 million bags projected by July 31. According to projections, the country had adequate stocks to last until the 2019 harvest season. “However, the production in the short rains was much lower than expected, necessitating a revision downwards,” read in part the report. But members of the National Assembly from maize growing areas have warned against importation of maize, noting that farmers still hold a lot of maize.
They have asked the Government to purchase the current stocks at a market rate of Sh3, 500.
The price of maize flour has dramatically gone up by around 40 per cent, in what some observers have attributed to hoarding.
Millers have condemned the maize scarcity, a situation they say has forced some of them to hike flour prices.
Tegemeo, the Egerton University-affiliated institution, has blamed the current "artificial" scarcity to the Government’s unpredictable intervention and the slow response when it finally does.
- STANDARD OF KENYA.