Agriculture and Poverty in Kenya

Benson Mwaniki Kuria
Intern at UNON Nairobi, Joint Medical Services Department, Kenya

According to the Kenyan Government’s Economic Recovery Strategy 2003, the agricultural sector is the backbone of the Kenyan economy. It contributes 26% directly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a further 27% indirectly through links with other sectors. The sector accounts for 60% of all export earnings besides being the source of nearly all food requirements.

More than three quarters of Kenya’s population is rurally based and derives its livelihood mainly from agriculture. More importantly, 56% of this population lives below the poverty line while 51% of those lack any access to adequate food. With such a dependence on land, focusing on agriculture therefore becomes a fundamental strategy in poverty alleviation.

One major challenge facing Kenya’s agriculture is the erratic weather pattern, coupled with pests and disease issues. Since Kenya’s agriculture is dependent on rain patterns the destruction of water towers has been a huge blow to agriculture and through it to the fight against poverty. Some of the ways of mitigating these problems are the protection of water catchment areas, the establishment of irrigation schemes along major permanent rivers and also practicing green house agriculture.

Another problem facing rural agriculture in Kenya is poor roads to access markets. This causes delays in the time between harvesting and delivery to the market. It also affects the post-harvest handling during transportation leading to poor quality produce and spoilage. To deal with the problem, the rural infrastructure needs to be improved. It may also be useful for farmers to form producer organizations in order to market their produce, thus reducing the transportation costs for individual farmers.

Raw products are sold as input to other national industries and not as final products such as leather, tea, cotton and coffee, and this limits the potential of the agricultural sector in Kenya. It limits the price Kenyan products can fetch in the international markets, due to competition from other primary producers, thus yielding low returns to farmers. The viability of this strategy in alleviating poverty issues is consequently reduced. One way to deal with this is to increase capital investments in advanced technology which will enable them to add value to the products and also sell the products as branded final products rather than raw materials for other production processes.

In order to break out of poverty, Kenyan farmers commercialize their practices and move away from subsistence farming. This requires dealing with the realities of globalization and consumer power. It involves using marketing to get the products in the hands of the consumers. With the right quality and low prices this can be achieved if farmers are part of an integrated value chain. Ken Schwedel defines the agro-food value chain as “a collection of activities or interrelated sequential and parallel functions involved in production, manufacturing and marketing of foods”.

A value chain approach is about engaging and supporting all operators in the value chain including input suppliers, farmers, traders, processors, retailers, up to the final consumer and ensuring that they work in an integrated manner. Kenya’s agriculture must undergo a paradigm shift and adopt a consumer based approach. Farmers must adopt an “it is no good to me if I can’t sell it” approach. Sustainable farming in the future will involve contracts. There are possibilities of contract farming in many areas; with large state marketing agents buying to replenish strategic food reserves, local private supermarket chains, and flower and fruit importers in overseas markets.

Considering the fact that most Kenyans reside in rural areas and live on agriculture, promoting agriculture is imperative for reducing poverty and hunger both key objectives of the Millennium Development Goals. Subsistence farming is no longer a viable option with half the rural population living below the poverty line. Agriculture has to be taken to the next level: commercialization.■