Academia.eduAcademia.edu
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies ISSN: 2501-8590 ISSN-L: 2501-8590 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/soc Volume 2 │ Issue 8 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.995705 REVITALIZING DRYLAND FOOD SECURITY THROUGH POLICY RE-ORIENTATION IN KENYA Ezekiel Mbitha Mwenzwa1i, Titus Musyoka Kilonzi2 Karatina University, Kenya 1 Ministry of Interior and Coordination of 2 National Government, Kenya Abstract The drylands of Kenya that comprise of Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) make up about 80% of the total land area and are largely inhabited by agro and nomadic pastoralists. Despite the large area, their contribution to Gross Domestic Product is about 5%, mainly through livestock husbandry and dryland farming. These areas are characterized by among others; thermal stress, soil moisture deficiency, insecurity, competition over natural wherewithal and other low development indices. In addition, their physical infrastructure including roads, housing, health, education and telecommunication is wanting. The result is basically unimpressive development indicators for example poor social service provisioning. Despite the foregoing challenges, the productivity of drylands is far below its potential and resource exploitation especially by the local population is largely done from a pedestal of ignorance, leading to untold environmental degradation. One reason for the foregoing state of affairs is inappropriate planning and poor policy execution. Flowing from the foregoing, this study analyses the past dryland food policies and related blueprints, their achievements and pitfalls and finally argues for a paradigm shift in policy development and execution as part of the panacea for revitalizing dryland food security. Keywords: revitalizing dryland, food security, policy re-orientation, Kenya Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 106 Ezekiel Mbitha Mwenzwa, Titus Musyoka Kilonzi REVITALIZING DRYLAND FOOD SECURITY THROUGH POLICY RE-ORIENTATION IN KENYA 1. Introduction Food security is a function of food availability, the easy access to it, subsequent utilization and the ability of the three to be sustained in the long-run (World Food Summit, 1996). Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (World Food Summit, 1996; Gitu, 2004). It is also described as the ability to meet the daily average per capita consumption of food per person per day or a person’s minimum daily energy requirements of 2,350 kcal of energy per person per day (FAO, 2003). It is therefore the ability of a country, regions or households within the country to meet target consumption levels on a year to year basis and encompasses availability through production, storage or import and the access to people through their purchasing power in markets or distribution (Kilonzi, 2013). The main elements of food security hence are supply (availability), demand (access) and continued utilization, which are affected by farm production and non-farm factors (Republic of Republic, 2008). On its part, food insecurity is a temporary decline or shortage of food in a country, regions or households and it may the persistence of inadequate diet caused by lack of resources to produce or acquire food. A household is considered to be food insecure when its occupants continue to live in hunger with real threats of starving to death (Kilonzi, 2013). The lack of food affects the population that is mostly poor or living under extreme poverty level and hence at a higher risk of starvation (KIPPRA, 2011). The food insecurity may be largely due to inadequate investments, environmental changes and ineffective policy implementation among others. Indeed, inaccessibility to food is also linked to the high poverty rates which lead to increased number of people depending on food aid with the Arid and Semi-Arid areas being the most vulnerable in Kenya (Kilonzi, 2013). Food insecurity in Kenya is also a result of inadequate access due to instability in food production, food supplies (Gitu, 2004) and to some extend poor distribution. The food insecurity affects the people living in both the urban and rural areas as well as those in high potential areas just as those in the ASAL areas (Gitu, 2006). People in the drylands continue to grapple with the challenge of food insecurity and the problem continues to worsen as the population increases against diminishing natural resources and the changing environmental factors (Kilonzi, 2013). Indeed, about 51 percent and 38 percent of the rural and urban population respectively are food insecure (Gitu, 2006) with about 10 million people at risk of starvation in Kenya (KFSSG, 2011). Over half of the population lack access to adequate food, the majority living in high European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 8 │ 2017 107 Ezekiel Mbitha Mwenzwa, Titus Musyoka Kilonzi REVITALIZING DRYLAND FOOD SECURITY THROUGH POLICY RE-ORIENTATION IN KENYA poverty levels while about 40 percent of the population live below the poverty line and are permanently food insecure; another 40 percent are normally self-food sufficient but are vulnerable to shocks and the rest are food secure (KIPPRA, 2011; KNBS, 2009). The food insecurity in the drylands areas of Kenya is a critical challenge and hence, posing questions on the food policies’ orientation. Therefore, there is need to examine the insights on how food policy re-orientation can revitalize food security in the drylands of the country. For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/soc/index.php/EJSSS/article/view/203 European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 8 │ 2017 108