End Hunger And Ensure Access By All People, To Safe, Nutritious And Sufficient Food All Year Round, By 2030.
Henry
Curtin University
End Hunger And Ensure Access By All People, To Safe, Nutritious And Sufficient Food All Year Round, By 2030.
Introduction
Food is a vital element that is core to the very existence of human life on earth. Food security refers to the access of safe, sufficient and nutritious food to meet the dietary needs for a healthy physical life. The absence of food security refers to food insecurity. Food insecurity has dire consequences on the physical, social and psychological patterns of human life. It impairs the healthy functioning of human life by negatively affecting their social, emotional, physical and psychological development. Food Security has been defined by FAO as a condition whereby safe and sufficiently nutritious food is available to mankind. Therefore the key determinants that enable the sufficient supply of food are the physical and economic access to gain adequate and healthy food consumption CITATION Wor96 \l 1033 (World Food Summit 1996 Rome Italy, 1996). Food insecurity is caused by poverty generally. Sometimes poverty of physical health, economic poverty or poverty of managing limited and scarce food resources. One of out of nine people globally is undernourished according to the United Nations. Food security is recognized as a universal human right due to its central role in the sustenance of life. The sustainable Developmental Goals incorporates the need to eliminate food insecurity and enable food security within nations who face food insecurity. The food insecurity is synonymously used with ‘Hunger’. A major portion of hungry people live in developing countries, mostly located in Asia and Sub Saharan Africa CITATION Car83 \l 1033 (Eicher, 1983). Kenya is one such food scarce country. The country is facing a dire threat to food security. Kenya is primarily an agrarian economy, however, the growth in population is evidently consuming low agricultural productivity. The low productivity is hence directly proportional to an increase in the food imports of the country burdening the economy. The burden ion economy hence produces multiple consequences for the government from health, security and stability to many political, cultural and environmental issues. As the world moves to achieve Goal 2 of SDGs to eliminate and reduce hunger in the world, The food insecurity in Kenya is to remain high as a high number population still remains undernutrition.
Discussion
Historical Factors
The drought-prone Kenya has been a victim of climate change around the world. The long spells of historic droughts and famines and insufficient rainfall across the decades have made the soil infertile to bear sufficient crop cultivation. In the past 100 years, Kenya was born about 28 droughts raising food concerns for the population CITATION Jul10 \l 1033 (Julius M Huho, 2010). The frequency and the severity of the occurrence of droughts have significantly increased in Kenya, recording three droughts only in the past decade. Making Kenya vulnerable to high food insecurity. According to Oxfam, Kenya is becoming more prone to droughts as the years pass byCITATION Oxf06 \l 1033 (Oxfam, 2006). Moreover, a lack of rainfall in the past 60 years according to Oxfam, has also lead to insufficient crop production for the Kenyan population. The conflict in Kenya is adherently internal and have been dominating and challenging the social order in Kenya. The political instigation and the unrest in the neighbouring countries, corruptions, inept governance on water and elections have all caused the conflict within Kenya CITATION Joh02 \l 1033 (Oucho, 2002). Conflict arises in populations away from their lands, lands are no longer used for cultivation they become battlegrounds. Eventually leaving the population away from sufficient physical and economic access and supply of food.
Cultural Factors
Patterns of consumption of certain crops wheat and rice more cost of production than the imports. Hence imports of these food crops create a significant burden on the economy, the World Bank has recognized the import of wheat and rice as one of the leading causes of the food crisis in Kenya. The cultural practices and the land tenure practices of the region decide as to what and how shall be produced. In Kenya, The food prices in the holy month of Ramadhan cause a temporary food crisis which makes the access and availability of food restriction.
A further understanding of cultural factors suggests that food distribution is made on the basis of
economic and power relations. Many cultures adhere to the principles of decision making
when it comes to food such as who will select, serve, prepare and who will serve. This is
usually subject to the gendered inequality incorporated by cultures leading to food scarcity. In
Kenya, Although women actively involve and pay a major role in producing the food,
they still face food insecurity when it comes to nutrition and consumption, making them
malnourished and weak CITATION Aim10 \l 1033 (Sellen, 2010).
Structural Factors
The structural factors to food crisis refer to those which lie within the structure of Kenya. They are the government's institutions and their policies which ineptly respond to publics food problems. The insecurity of food has remained persistent in the country to inept and inefficient governance and such policies are incompetent in advancing towards achieving their goals because they do not consider the structure and what it is comprised of while formulating them. Since Kenya is an agrarian economy most the agrarian policies introduced by the Kenyan government do not usually serve the purpose CITATION Dic97 \l 1033 (Dickson M. Nyariki, 1997 ). The State policies of trade, health and education all signify the structural foundations to the food insecurity. The structural problems refer to the corruption and ineffective management of food resources CITATION Mak19 \l 1033 (Mwobobia). Kenya's incapability and inability to deal with situations like droughts and water scarcity have led to the problem to accelerate CITATION Ali11 \l 1033 (Oluoko-Odingo, 2011). The inadequate infrastructure makes it difficult for farmers in rural areas to transport and supply their crops from rural areas to urban areas. Heavy imports of wheat, maize and rice have also negatively affected the balance of trade in Kenya CITATION Gil15 \l 1033 (Gillson & Fouad, 2015), leading to less per capita incomes and inequalities within the country CITATION Nya04 \l 1033 (HO, Nzuma, Ommeh, & Mbithi, 2004). The economy of the country is heavily burned due to an increase in expenditure and low returns.
Critical Analysis
The food crisis in Kenya is mostly affecting the farmers and livestock owners. Hence agriculture, in general, is direly affecting the food outcomes in the country. Moreover, water shortages, climate change and conflict have outrightly made it difficult for them to increase the production on an infertile land CITATION Ric87 \l 1033 (Hogg, 1987 ). There been internally displaced people who desire movement in a surge of food, The overall health of mothers with dependent children is equally affecting their physical development and the initial years of growth in infants. The food crisis is further accelerated due to the internal instability within the country CITATION Pér17 \l 1033 (Pérez-Escamilla R, 2017). All these factioctors constitute to lower incomes in households limiting their access to the availability of food to them. 80% of Kenya’s rural workforce is employed in the agriculture sector. The government has therefore adopted a policy to provide a subsidy to the farmers to gain farming inputs on affordable prices with the effort of National Cereal and Produce Board (NCPB). The government is also taking the initiative to provide loans on lower interest rates, tax-free import of maze. In a nutshell, the Government of Kenya has undertaken the Vision 2030 to eliminate food insecurity and hunger from the country CITATION Eze14 \l 1033 (Mwenzwa & Misati, 2014). The vision includes agricultural reforms in policy, reduction of costs of fertilizers development of lands use and agricultural schemes like the introduction of the green revolution to increase the production efficiency of landCITATION Ken \l 1033 (Research). Moreover, the wastage of food which does not get supplied can be stored in warehousing facilities to meet the food needs in situations of droughts and famine.
Currently, 10,700 farmers are being trained with the help of UN Food Program to improve their farming and marketing skills to enhance food production CITATION SMA19 \l 1033 (SMALLHOLDER FARMERS STRENGTHEN FOOD SECURITY IN KENYA, 2019). This has shown significant results as the average production of food crop has increased. The Kenyan government and introduce programs to induce sustainable development goals in their policies to counter food crisis CITATION Clu19 \l 1033 (Clues and solutions to Kenya’s puzzling food price crisis), educate farmers on the new and advanced technological farming techniques and initiate negotiations with the anti-peace groups CITATION And08 \l 1033 (Andrews & Flores, 2008). A special focus shall be maintained on the health and education of women and children for their better physical growth and development. The World Bank is promoting strategies to support the advancement in farming techniques, government policies to tackle hunger within the country and climate-smart techniques to increase farming outcomes CITATION FOO19 \l 1033 (FOOD SECURITY, 2019).
Conclusion
In conclusion, food scarcity or hunger in any country is a major concern and a reality which needs to be dealt with globally. Despite being the eight largest agrarian countries in the African continent, Kenya still faces and is a victim of food insecurity. The central themes affecting the food crisis in Kenya are mostly internal, such as climate change, water scarcity, conflicts, and other inequalities. Although the Kenyan government is trying to eliminate and overcome the food crisis it is however still far from a dream to achieve it completely. The Kenyan government has introduced initiatives to limit the acceleration of food insecurity in the country that leads to a number of issues adding to its burden. Creating an inclusive environment for the farmers in the policy-making process encourages them to take an extra mile towards the crop production, supply and meeting the demands all over the country. Creating effective and indulging policies for the decrease in food scarcity can ensure that Kenya can meet the Goal 2 of Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
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