Browsing: Food Security

East Africa has since late 2019 been fighting swarms of desert locusts which have posed a serious threat to crops and grazing across the region. 

The locust plague In Kenya is the worst in 70 years. In the last two months, new swarms have been breeding and hatching leaving farmers devastated as they try to cope with the negative effects from previous pests not to mention the dry spells and floods that hit the region further destroying crops. 

“We expect the worst if the young hatch in March and April,” Kelvin Shingles, Kenya Country Director for German Agro Action (Deutsche Welthungerhilfe) said in a press release. 

In Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, it is reported that up to 38 percent of cropland and 48 percent of pastureland have been affected. 69 percent of households have also suffered losses due to the plague according to the Southern Africa Food and …

There is a certain state of mind where someone is so sure something is true they consider all information as proof, and ignore everything that suggests otherwise. It is how the majority of the world’s population believed the Earth was flat long after measurements showed the curve on the planet’s surface and its changing position relative to the sun and stars. 

For, when you want to believe the Earth is flat, facts are only interference.  

And so it is with the current fashion for declaring that spraying locusts or any insects that eat part or all our crops is necessarily bad, even when there is no evidence at all that that is the case. 

Indeed, so extreme is the anti-pesticide noise that we are in danger of plundering our food output and increasing our dependency on Europe for generations ahead. Some have even have called it the new colonialism, in …

During the last decade much has been said about the urgency to develop the African agricultural sector to meet the increasing need for food security across the continent. Frequently it is stressed that Africa largely missed the “Green Revolution” since the continent’s agriculture sector did not transform into an intensive arena with modern technologies to increase the crop yield significantly¹.

Until today the East African agricultural sector is dominated for 75% by smallholder farmers that apply low farming inputs, traditional technologies and methods, while agriculture remains the backbone of the economy². This article discusses a reason for optimism, and how a circular economy (aims close the loop of resources through the establishment of restorative and regenerative systems), can contribute to food security and food productivity in East Africa.

Also Read: Food security: Opening markets for smallholder farmers  

Africa missed the Green revolution; an opportunity to implement …

Close to three million Kenyans are at risk of facing starvation as the impact of Covid-19 and locust invasion on food security escalates. According to the latest report from  World Bank, despite the government’s efforts to mitigate the impact of corona virus on food security, millions are at risk. 

The Report says food security in Kenya is facing twin shocks from restrictions in place due to the Covid-19 crisis and the earlier locust attack, contributing to a spike in food prices. 

“While Kenya’s cereal producing counties were spared the first-round of the locust invasion, there is high probability that the second-round towards mid-year could impact major food growing areas. The government is implementing a number of measures to mitigate the impact of the corona virus on food security and food prices,” the report states. 

Kenya relies heavily on maize, wheat, rice and Irish potatoes for food.   It is estimated that …