Essay Sample: Analysis of Food Security

Food security is the most important factor for families and the human species at large to survive in the world (Oluoko, 2011). However, there are numerous instances in developing countries where the majority of their population has for a long time been unable to access proper and sufficient food and nutrition (Oluoko, 2011). The paper, therefore, focuses on finding out how the governments in these countries tackle this underlying issue of food insecurity particularly among communities, and how best they can handle this problem in a way that will ensure everyone has access to proper food and nutrition. Besides that, it will be focusing on Kenya, a developing country in East Africa, and all the food insecurity issues that it faces together with the causes and effects it has on the people of Kenya. It also seeks to find out how well these nations can manage the situation by providing adequate food security through food systems that can be used to cater to everyone's food needs by promoting effective and nutritional agricultural practices.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Background

Food insecurity refers to the constant state of not being able to access sufficient quantities of nutritious and affordable food (Oluoko, 2011). The insecurity may be caused by numerous factors with population growth being one of them. In Kenya, there has been a constant increase in population over the years thereby causing a huge challenge in the eradication of hunger. The population increase has more often not been accompanied by an increase in the production of food thus causing a huge deficit between the population and the amount of food being produced (Oluoko, 2011). An increase in a population means that there will be a further need for more land, clean water, and increased food demand thereby putting more pressure on the environment. The decline in the number of resources available leads to conflict as different individuals and communities will be fighting for control of the little resources that are available and causing further strife between the communities (Flora, 2010). In Kenya, this can mostly be witnessed in the northern part of the country where a majority of the land is either arid or semi-arid. There has been constant tribal conflict in these areas owing to the fact that there are scarce water resources and natural pastures and therefore, in a bid to control these resources, there have been persistent squabbles by the pastoral communities living in this part of Kenya (Flora, 2010). Owing to this fact, the northern arid and semi-arid regions of Kenya has a huge problem in terms of food security with the little that is available being shared between livestock and the rising human population. Increase in population also causes there to be a rise in urbanization. More and more land that would otherwise be used for farming will now be used for construction of modern building structures to cater for the increased population (Flora, 2010). The urbanization also causes a destruction of water catchment areas, forests and land that would otherwise be used for farming will now be used for human settlement. The best way to cater to both the needs of the increased human population and livestock is through promotion and government support through investment that will support arable farming in arid and semi-arid regions (Flora,2010).

Technologies That Reduce Hunger and Improve Food Security

There is no denying that modern problems need modern solutions and therefore, in order to combat the food insecurity problem in Kenya, modern technology has to be adopted and embraced for maximum yield in the farms (Hickey et al., 2012). First off, unpredictable rain patterns and climate change is a huge factor that affects the way farmers plan their agricultural activities. Through proper and appropriate modern weather forecast methods, agricultural producers can be able to plan and know when to expect rain thereby increasing their chances of more productivity. Secondly, for there to be improved agricultural productivity, data on agriculture needs to be available. Numerous organizations in Kenya conduct research and collect data on farming in an effort to boost the output levels of farming. Using this information collected and through extension services, farmers will be able to be more decisive in their farming methods and with that be able to harvest more produce (Hickey et al., 2012). The information may include what fertilizers or pesticides to use and in what quantities during farming and this data circulated to farmers depending on their geographical region in Kenya. Therefore, through improved prediction services, proper data collection and implementation services and accurately remitting to farmers on researched information on agriculture will boost agricultural activities in Kenya. All these modern techniques should be addressed and farmers sensitized how they can use their mobile phones to access this information and through this, food security will be improved and hunger reduced (Wambua et al., 2014). The use of old techniques of farming has been a hindrance and the only way out is through modernization of farming methods. A farmer all the way in the north eastern part of Kenya should be able to get information on how best they can till the land and how efficiently they can apply irrigation techniques to improve the output of their produce (Wambua et al.,2014).

Factors Affecting the Flow of Food in Kenya

Kenya’s economy is greatly dependent on agriculture with 25% of its gross domestic product attributed to agriculture (Wambua et al., 2014). Therefore, there is a great need to improve the accessibility and flow of food in the country. Poor infrastructure is a big factor that affects the flow of food in Kenya with the government being in control of food distribution. Some parts of Kenya are deprived of food with other areas having access to it mostly due to political reasons with the minorities not having anyone to fight for them and therefore the government use food as a tool of controlling the communities and only provide relief food to them and not constant food supply (Wambua et al., 2014). Due to poor infrastructure, produce that would otherwise take a short time to reach its destination will take longer than usual. This therefore causes an increase in indirect expenses which in turn causes the price of food to rise (Stephens et al.,2012). High food prices cause inaccessibility of food to certain poor communities and results in hunger. The problem, therefore, is not lack of food but the high standards of living in the country that has caused persistent hunger and food insecurity especially in the northern parts of Kenya (Stephens et al.,2012). There has as well been underinvestment in infrastructure such as rural roads and irrigation in Kenya. Farmers may have favorable farming conditions in terms of climate and get good output out of their agricultural activities but their produce ends up getting destroyed and perishing in storage due to poor road infrastructure and inaccessibility of their farms. The government has also done little to improve on rural irrigation with the little irrigation schemes set up not reaching the implantation stage due to misappropriation and embezzlement of funds meant for these projects (Stephens et al.,2012). Food insecurity in Kenya, therefore, is majorly caused by the government through the policies it has put in place and the measures of their poor implementation.

Conclusion

There is a great need for an increase in agricultural productivity in Kenya with the constant increase in population thus causing a strain on the little resources available. The biggest impediment to food security in Kenya is political instability since with this instability then policies set cannot be implemented, infrastructure cannot be improved and the prices of commodities will remain high (Stephens et al.,2012). Being a developing country, Kenya has a huge number of poor people, and therefore if the living standards are high, there will be little access to food for families that are unable to purchase their own food due to the high prices. The country has a huge potential as well to feed its own citizens only if the infrastructure is improved, proper education and sensitization done to the farmers and there is a proper channel of food distribution not only to the major towns in Kenya but as well as to the arid and semi-arid areas of the country (Stephens et al.,2012).

The government should identify and get rid of the bottlenecks that hinder positive output in agriculture in order to improve productivity and it should as well involve the various stakeholders in the industry to bring out the best results. Agriculture being the biggest source of income and as well an important factor for families to survive needs a well laid out leadership structure that will ensure continuity in productivity and that farmers are well taken care of and motivated to continue farming. If the government and the various stakeholders in the agriculture industry come together to support farming in Kenya then food insecurity will be a thing of the past and the country would be able to even produce a surplus in agricultural produce which would be used to generate income for the country through exports (Stephens et al., 2012). The prices of fertilizers and other farm inputs should be subsidized by the government to give agricultural producers an easy time to farm and at the same time be able to maintain their tilled land for the period until which they harvest.

For the communities in northern Kenya fighting over the little natural resources they own, the various stakeholders should come through and help in eliminating the strife that is there between the communities by providing and supporting irrigation in an effort to increase food production. The communities in the region being mainly pastoralists and not farmers should be provided with proper education and sensitization on modern farming methods to ensure that they too are not left behind in the fight for food security (Stephens et al., 2012).

References

Oluoko-Odingo, A. A. (2011). Vulnerability and adaptation to food insecurity and poverty in Kenya. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 101(1), 1-20. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232816910_Vulnerability_and_Adaptation_to_Food_Insecurity_and_Poverty_in_Kenya

Flora, C. B. (2010). Food security in the context of energy and resource depletion: Sustainable agriculture in developing countries. Renewable agriculture and food systems, 118-128 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/renewable-agriculture-and-food- systems/article/food-security-in-the-context-of-energy-and-resource-depletion-sustainable-agriculture-in-developing

Eidt, C. M., Hickey, G. M., & Curtis, M. A. (2012). Knowledge integration and the adoption of new agricultural technologies: Kenyan perspectives. Food Security, 4(3), 355-367.

https://idl-bnc-idrc.dspacedirect.org/handle/10625/50447Wambua, B. N., Omoke, K. J., & Mutua, T. M. (2014). Effects of socio-economic factors on food security situation in the Kenyan dry lands ecosystem. Asian Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences, 2(1).

https://ajouronline.com/index.php/AJAFS/article/view/893Stephens, E. C., Nicholson, C. F., Brown, D. R., Parsons, D., Barrett, C. B., Lehmann, J., ... & Riha, S. J. (2012). Modeling the impact of natural resource-based poverty traps on food security in Kenya: The Crops, Livestock and Soils in Smallholder Economic Systems (CLASSES) model. Food Security, 4(3), 423-439.