Food shortages expected despite heavy rainfall - report

Although many parts of Kenya have received exceptionally high rainfall this year, food shortages continue to bite, especially in traditionally arid areas in the north of the country, where maize prices have already risen dramatically, a new report has revealed. A USAID Early Warning System Network report, released on 9 June, said potential benefits of the April and May rains in terms of food production had been limited by the late onset of the season, and severe flooding around the Lake Victoria and Tana River basins. As a result, crop development in the country was behind schedule, the report said. The late onset of the rains was likely to result in a fall in production of up to 50 percent in eastern and central parts of the country. In extreme cases such as in Coast Province, only 10 percent of the 60,000 hectares normally put to maize had been planted, and it was unlikely for more to be completed before planting became impossible, it added. "Once the rains started, they were exceptionally heavy in most areas of the country in April through May, with the exception of marginal agricultural districts," the report noted. "If imports are put off much longer, consumer maize prices will go up dramatically," it said. The report said an emergency food security assessment which took place in the northwestern district of Turkana also indicated alarmingly high rates of child malnutrition there, despite recent improvements in key livestock production indicators in pastoral districts across the country. It said a disaster preparedness fund had been set up in Turkana and other drought-affected northern districts of Samburu, Mandera and Marsabit. Meanwhile, the international relief organisation Action Churches Together (ACT) has appealed for US$ 1.04 million to help victims of the May floods, which affected 17 districts in Kenya. The floods resulted in at least 70 deaths and displaced an estimated 60,000 people.