NCPB Releases Over 5,000 Bags of Maize to Drought-Stricken Counties

A total of 5,222 bags of maize have been released by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) for distribution across drought-stricken counties of Turkana, Baringo, and Isiolo.

The bags of maize released are part of the 3.5 million bags that the NCPB is currently holding as the Strategic Food Reserve.

According to the National Drought Management Authority, close to 1.1 million people need food following poor performance of the October-November-December rains last year.

The drought has prompted the government to release the strategic reserve stocks and make available 2 billion shillings to help in distribution and tracking of water in the affected regions.

READ Images Coming From Turkana and Baringo Should Haunt Our Leaders

Managing director Albin Sang said that they had already started releasing stocks from some of NCPB’s depots as a measure of making sure that food is available to the drought-stricken regions.

It was announced on Tuesday that there are 46 million bags of maize currently in the country with the majority of the stock held by agencies such as relief bodies, the NCPB, millers, and farmers.

The Irony

Even as NCPB steps in to distribute maize to drought-stricken counties, farmers in the North-Rift are a disappointed lot as they are still holding on to millions of bags of maize after experiencing a bumper harvest in 2018 only for the government to settle on buying 2 million bags from the total 16 million harvested.

The Government had initially announced that a 90-kilogram bag of maize would be bought at 2,300 shillings but President Uhuru Kenyatta later gave a directive to NCPB to buy the maize from farmers at 2,500 shillings.

SEE Government’s Negligible Increase of Maize Prices to KShs. 2500 Not Enough for Farmers

On their part, the maize farmers wanted the government to buy the produce at 3,600 shillings.

Stringent measures put by the board when it started buying maize has led to only 150,000 bags of maize being bought and the rest is still with farmers who are in the process of preparing for this year’s planting season.

The issue of food security has always been a song in Kenya and barely any legal actions have been taken to tame the issue. Food security is never brought about by a shortage or lack of food but by the systems in place. If the farmer, who is the key producer of food is well taken care of then food security will no longer be an issue in the country.

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Water Harvesting

This should be a wake-up call for the government to put long-term measures in place so as to avoid a recurrence of the same in future since these are the same counties that are always being faced with hunger and when the rainy season comes, they will still be affected by floods.

It is about time that water harvesting systems and channels are put in place as early as now so that these counties remain safe by the time the rains come.

READ ALSO NDMA On the Spot Over Unaccounted 4.3 Billion Shillings Drought Funds