we shouldn't fall for this Jubilee propaganda. This is an insult adding to the claim by the Minister for Food Shortages - Bett - that Kenyans eat excessive Ugali.
In this day and age, drought (meaning the absence of rain) must not be a factor in food production. Government policies have simply shown inept leadership. One month rainfall (and we had two and half) should be enough to get a full harvest. Research has come up with maize that matures faster - 2 months - as opposed to that which used to take six months.
There should be a policy of amalgamating small holder farms by offering people quality housing in urban areas. HK could lead the way in getting "The Private Sector" to buy these lands and run commercial maize farms.
At the moment farmers get paid for their maize cheaply because the consumers can only pay so much for ugali or unga. That in turn leads to smaller acreage under maize as people prefer to grow other crops that could bring in ready cash. Sugarcane took away a lot of land in Western and Nyanza. We can have maize being used to produce other value added products such as (and I can't believe I am about to write this - God!) alcohol (and in mitigation will add) for use as fuel. There are a zillion other products which could come from maize and that could raise the price of maize and bring an encouraging windfall to the farmers.
http://www.maizeproducts.com/products/More research could go in to getting strains of millet and sorghum that mature faster. But we cannot change the eating habits of a people just because we are unable to produce enough.
Lastly, when people's living standards improve, they also start eating other things. This is a natural development that cannot be changed by decree. Most of the "other" foods are expensive simply because the preparation adds value to the basic raw material.
It also goes without argument that the higher education a society gets and generally reduces ignorance, the wider the types of foods eaten. When I spent 2000 dollars to get the choicest caviar from Russia in 2000 and gave one small quantity to my brother (worth about USD 500), he threw it in the garbage bin where I found it while trying to empty it for the dump! The man had no idea what it was or its value.
I carried an icebox full of fresh salmon and begged my way through the airport. I prepared it for invited friends. They ate all the meat and grilled chicken but nobody ate more than a tiny slice of the salmon. Again, no matter how many decrees, they would rather starve like Somalis did in 1990 while the fish popped out of the sea leading Spanish fishermen to become billionaires overnight when they discovered the fish following news reports.
I know many Maa who think fish is a snake. Educate our people, make them prosperous and their children might know and accept a wider food basket. But condemning them after failing to provide them the power to even buy these other foods is a Jubilee approach.
Perhaps there is a reason why Uhuru wants poor Maasais and kalenjin to continue selling their land. The incentive is to make them poor so they become amenable to selling cheaply.
Pundit used a lot of words to explain the basis for Moi banning busaa in RV and fighting it hard. One could say had busaa not taken hold in Kalenjin Land, Burnt forest would still be 100% Kalenjin. May be even Nakuru, who knows?
I agree, the quickest way to change what folks eat is to make the alternatives available at the same price or lower instead of screaming for folks to change their eating habits. I remember when tilapia became scarce in the lake or too expensive, folks started eating fish like omena which they would never touch during the hay days.
Topic: Tough times ahead as maize crop wilts for lack of rain (Read 3119 times)