Rising Food Prices Will Force More Kenyans To Go Hungry Warns FAO
Over 3 million Kenyans among the 11 million in East and Horn of Africa have been impacted by the ongoing severe drought.
According to ReliefWeb, the UN, the Red Cross and regional governments, have taken steps to alleviate the situation.
The National Treasury has allocated Ksh 7.3 billion while the county governments have provided Ksh 2 billion for doubling of food rations and cash transfers among other measures.
However, the drought has resulted into the price escalation of agricultural commodities is also triggering inflation.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) consumer prices increased 6.99 percent year-on-year in January, following a 6.35 percent rise in December. It was the highest inflation rate in one year, mainly boosted by higher prices for food, caused by drought.
Subsequently, the cost of living is bound to soar after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) raised prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene in its monthly retail guidelines for the month of February to March hitting KSH 100. These are the highest since September 2015 when the cost of petrol hit Sh102.55 per litre in Nairobi.
“The effect of the latest ERC move will have a direct impact on the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (18.30% weight); transport (8.66% weight) and indirectly affect the 36.04% weighted food & non-alcoholic beverages in the upcoming headline inflation numbers,” says Genghis Research.
The Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) in a statement said the long rains (March-May) outlook that food growing areas of Western and Nyanza would have near-normal rain.
“The expected poor temporal distribution of the seasonal rainfall is, however, likely to negatively impact most agricultural areas. “Food security is expected to deteriorate over most parts of the country and more so the northern areas of Kenya,” KMD said in a statement.
Depressed rainfall is expected over most parts of the country, especially the Eastern sector, during March-May 2017 “Long-Rains” Season. pic.twitter.com/4Iz5ta6Gyx
— Kenya Met Department (@KenyaMetService) February 13, 2017
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) warns that a sharp increase in food prices could lead to renewed hunger in the region.
“Sharply increasing prices are severely constraining food access for large numbers of households with alarming consequences in terms of food insecurity,” Mario Zappacosta, FAO senior economist, said in a statement.
“Maize prices increased in January by 9-14 percent in most monitored markets, as the output of the short rains harvest, currently underway in eastern and coastal lowlands, was sharply reduced due to insufficient rainfall. Prices of maize in January were 20-30 percent higher than 12 months earlier in several markets, also as a result of a below-average long rains harvest, recently completed in high potential western areas of the Rift Valley,” according to FAO’s monthly report on food price trends for Kenya.
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This has been driven by the fact that the Eastern and coastal lowlands as well as some western areas of the Rift Valley continue suffering below-average rainfall. Maize prices are currently up by around 30