Nyamira farmers have been advised to balance food and cash crops in their farming ventures to mitigate against food insecurity.
Nyamira County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for agriculture, Alice Manoti, while presiding over celebrations of World Food Day at Tombe grounds in Nyamira County on Monday, observed that most farmers have apportioned a lot of their land to cash crops with just minimal portions to food crops, endangering their ability to sustainably access food for their households.
“Most farmers assume that they will get money from cash crops to buy food for their households, but with the current increase in food prices, it is not possible to sustain the right quantities of food with the recommended nutrition value when buying all the food for use at home. The same money earned from cash crops is used to meet other financial needs at home like clothing, health care, and school fees, thus not enough to satisfactorily buy food throughout the year,” she explained.
“I’m therefore advising farmers to ensure they balance their farming ventures and farm food crops of various varieties because they will be able to sustainably supply nutritious food for their families and only supplement with money earned from cash crops to raise healthy and happy families,” she counselled.
Ms. Manoti pointed out that the effects of climate change, compounded with poor farming practices and methodologies, contribute to poor yields and lead to food insecurity. Sticking to traditional farming methods when the rain patterns are erratic with compromised soil fertility is hampering the production of crops, thus discouraging most farmers from farming food crops.
“You must embrace modern farming techniques because our land has been reduced by population growth. Modern farming techniques enable farmers to make high yields from small land sizes. Embracing soil conservation and procuring high-quality seeds and seedlings that are disease- and drought-resistant can assure farmers of enhanced production.
For livestock farmers, the county has subsidised the price of artificial insemination (AI), and they can therefore produce quality breeds of cows that have high milk production. Further, the national government has subsidised maize fertiliser for all farmers countrywide to reduce production costs,” Agriculture CECM said.
She assured that the recent exercise by the county to map all farmers will guide the county’s resource allocation to various wards and offer advice and extension services to farmers to know the appropriate food crop to plant on their farms.
“The county is willing to support each farmer irrespective of their level of farming because it is the main source of livelihood for most people in the county and the major source of revenue for the county,” Ms. Manoti emphasised.
The World Food Day’s theme, ‘Water is food, water is life; leave no one behind’ emphasises the importance of conserving and protecting our water sources against depletion and pollution because they sustain the growth and production of food crops for us to be food secure, and we use this precious commodity for drinking and domestic use both for humans and animals.
The day has been commemorated annually on October 16 since 1979 to promote awareness of hunger and global action for the future of food and people, courtesy of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
By Deborah Bochere
