Why is Uganda and Tanzania producing more food than Kenya?
Both countries enjoy a competitive and comparative advantage over Kenya when it comes to agricultural production. Uganda has a very favorable climate. It receives more rainfall owing to a higher forest cover. Uganda also has a bimodal planting calendar that allows two harvests of grain in a year and a year-round harvest of all other farm produce, including horticulture.
The soils are also much more fertile and require less fertilizer. Uganda also has more arable land they are developing for large-scale commercial farming.
Uganda has substantial investments being put in place to develop large commercial farms that enjoy larger economies of scale. These farms are more mechanized and they produce at much lower unit costs.
Tanzania also has more arable land, and a higher average size of farms, more rainfall and is also producing more competitively for most agricultural produce.
On the contrary, Kenya has much less suitable arable land. Majority of the land is semi-arid and arid and therefore not very suited for agricultural production. Besides, the traditional food baskets of central and North Rift have suffered declining productivity due to monoculture.
Kenyan soils have, therefore, acidified over the years and their capacity to uptake fertilizers to the plants has declined.
The farm sizes have also been reducing, as the subdivision of land continues. The smaller the piece of land, the less economical it is. While in other parts of the world, agricultural land is consolidating to larger and more economical sizes, in Kenya it is getting smaller, meaning that the unit cost of production of agricultural produce is increasing, thus making Kenya uncompetitive.
Are policies in Kenya helping the average farmer?
Policies in Kenya are unfavorable to agribusiness. The latest introduction of 16% Value Added Tax (VAT) on agricultural inputs, is a thing that no other country in the world has ever done. In fact, other countries subsidize agricultural inputs to encourage production.
Tax regimes in Kenya have made it very uncompetitive to the extent that farm machinery and equipment is more expensive in Kenya than in neighboring countries.
For example, a John Deere tractor is 25 percent cheaper in Uganda than it is in Kenya. Uganda is landlocked despite its imports having to pass through Kenya. The case remains the same with fertilizer and fuel. It is a lot cheaper to produce in Uganda.
Besides, taxes, which include agricultural produces cess (APC) among others, devolving agriculture is another serious challenge. It amounts to devolving food security.
Not all counties are well endowed with arable land and rainfall. Some are net buyers of food, while others are making it difficult for their farmers to market their produce by charging APC amongst other trade barriers.
How has urbanization affected agricultural production in Kenya?
Only one-third of Kenya has good productivity potential. Yet even this has been decreasing over the years. A few years back, Kiambu and Thika were major agricultural areas. But now, all the agricultural land between Nairobi and these towns has been converted into buildings.
A few years back, Kenya had reserved rangelands and ranches that were producing beef for export and local consumption. These ranches lined up from Laikipia, Nyahururu, Machakos, Voi to Coast used to feed Kenya Meat Commission. They included the Embakasi Ranch, Maanzoni, Konza, and Malili. Now they are no more, and Kenya is importing between 60to 70 percent of its beef from Somalia, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.
Is Kenya safe relying on food from neighboring countries?
Absolutely not. Should neighbors decide to close the borders, as has happened in the past, the consequences will be dire.
What is the way forward?
The challenges facing our agriculture can be fixed, quickly with the right resolve and political goodwill. However, action must be taken now, as waiting any longer might just move things to a point of no return.
The above write-up is based on an interview Mr. Gerald Masila, the executive director of the Eastern African Grain Council (EAGC) had with the Daily Nation