CORONA VIRUS, Why Kenyan Farmers are the Hardest Hit and the Way Forward

When disasters strike a lot of things are hit hard. Life changes, sometimes to the worst. Social settings are interfered with and people’s perspective on life issues is completely changed.

The Covid-19 pandemic has stricken the world at an unprecedented time, the beginning of the year. At the beginning, everyone thought, that with the medical advancements in the world right now, it would be taken care of fast. Technology in any field notwithstanding, the virus is out here affecting everyone regardless of their age, ethnicity, social status or profession.

Since its detection, entry and rapid spread across world’s continents, major sectors of the world economy have been hit hard. Among them, and arguably the backbone of our being is agriculture.

PASTORALISTS
Pastoralism is a sector that has not been spared by this novel coronavirus pandemic. Pastoralism is a significant part of the global economy that contributes to economic growth, poverty reduction and most importantly nutrition. It is a major contributor to Kenya’s GDP creating employment to millions of people, a way of culture and a measure of wealth.

Covid-19 came and governments jumped into action, coming up with measures aimed at protecting their citizens.

Kenya has since introduced a 7pm to dawn curfew, cessation in some counties and emphasized, as it is world over, on the importance of social distancing and worse the closure of markets where they sell their livestock.

Locusts invasion in Kenya and the larger Eastern Africa has been a devastating experience for farmers
Photo ©Associated Press

Most pastoralists in Kenya are therefore restricted on the areas they can cover as they look to feed their animals. This comes at a time when they are competing with millions of locusts for pasture. This means there is barely enough pasture to feed their animals and food for the pastoralists.

Besides the local measures, the world airspace is almost restricted as countries looking into stopping people from importing the disease from abroad. Airport operations worldwide have been shrunk. Europe and the Far East are major markets for livestock products and that means that most markets have been closed and the delivery of food has been disrupted.

FISHERMEN
Kenya’s fish for export is mainly from the Kenyan coast, and has markets in Europe and Asia. Since the pandemic struck, and restrictions by various governments put in place, fish farmers are also bearing the brunt of the outbreak.

Fish farmers have lost their biggest markets in Europe and Asia due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Photo © Ministry of Industrialization

While the best time for fishermen to go fishing is at night when temperatures are low, the curfew hours do not favour those in the fish business.

The closure of the Chinese export market is one such nightmare for fishmongers. The local market is not dependable and thus not a viable source of income for those who have invested a lot on fish farming.

FOOD SECURITY
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, over 12 million Kenyans are not able to consume food with enough calories for a healthy lifestyle. Over 60% of these individuals are in rural areas where agriculture is the main economic activity, a source of livelihood.

Kenya heavily relies on maize, wheat, rice and Irish potatoes for food while she produces most of the total maize demand itself, importing only about 10%.

March 2020 is the month Kenya announced her first case of COVID-19 and later strict measures including the closure of produce markets, learning institutions, ban on social gatherings and dawn to dusk curfews. This just added to the challenge because markets have stayed closed and delivery of food highly disrupted.

Kenya’s food system is heavily dominated by small, independent transporters as the link between producers and consumers.  The impact of these measures mostly affected low-income urban households that rely on these informal food markets. Middle and higher-income families can afford fresh produce from supermarkets and grocery shops, which remain open as essential service providers.

The good news is that the ministry of agriculture categorized the transport of foodstuff as an essential service, to improve food supply in urban areas.

The ministry has also announced plans to import maize, about 4 million bags, following its food security committee’s assessment that the current stocks can last up to the end of April.

While we commend the government on fastidious actions, it must place adequate measures to ensure that economically devastated households are cushioned against food shortage that is looming in the wake of this pandemic.

EFFECT ON ECONOMY
Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to take a dip in 2020 due to the negative impact of the coronavirus) pandemic. A change in this depends on how long we will live with this virus, the effect it will have on the country’s human resource, how it will play out internationally and the measures taken by the state to mitigate this tough situation.

Most government’s immediate action has been focused on strengthening the health system. Other health policy measures such as working from home, travel restrictions, the closure of all schools, colleges and universities, the ban on any form of public gatherings, and the 7pm to dawn curfew, are necessary in helping the health system curb the spread and strain of the virus on the economy.

With learning institutions closed, most of those who supply cereals, eggs, vegetables or fruits already lack markets. This has hugely devastated small scale farmers.

However, such measures largely affect production across all economic sectors and increase a demand for products that are no longer produced or are available on a small scale.

The hardest hit in the population during this crisis are the poorest and the most vulnerable households in Kenya many of whom depend on farming for those in rural areas and the self-employed and the informal sectors in urban areas.

MITIGATION STRATEGIES
Inasmuch as they are not ignored by the government, we cannot point out specific emergency interventions that have been spelled out specifically targeting the informal sectors like those in small-scale agriculture.

To fight poverty, agriculture must be vibrant, boosted by the government of the day.

The national government, industry associations, county governments and other key stakeholders can explore on ways to keep farmers on production while adhering to the set measures on containing this pandemic.

Negotiations with stakeholders:  Dependence on foreign markets is something we cannot ignore and to keep the trade going, the government can keep them open by negotiating with cargo planes for reduced rates on behalf of exporters.

Modernization: There is urgent need to modernize and place value-addition mechanisms as solutions to small scale players in the industry and emphasize on e-commerce. Better production methods must be thought out. Overreliance on seasonal rains, most of which fail, is not the way to go anymore.

Farmers must be introduced and trained on new methodologies of production. Technological advancements need to be put into practice. There must be more work put into infrastructure and stakeholder training.

Marketing: All stakeholders have to come up with innovative marketing strategies that encompass new technology. There must be change in the future.

Importation: In the short-run, and while the government prepares for life post-Covid-19, an import of staple foods such as maize is welcome.

Central Bank Interventions:  The Central Bank has rolled out several measures to provide critical safety nets to cushion the formal economic sectors from the disruption of production by coronavirus. These include lowering the Cash Reserve Ration (CRR) to 4.25 percent, from 5.25 percent, immediate settlement of pending bills of Ksh13 billion, Ksh10 billion VAT refunds by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), reduction of income (corporation) tax rate from 30 percent to 25 percent and VAT from 16 percent to 14 percent.