WORLD FOOD DAY

The Ministry of Special Programmes has advised Kenyans to embrace good farming practices and modern crop husbandry techniques during the on going rains to cushion the country from a vicious cycle of food insecurity and famine.

Minister Dr. Naomi Shaban said following the long drought and famine which exposed over million Kenyans to biting food shortages, the government will go out of its way to ensure that wananchi take advantage of rain-fed agriculture and irrigation to mitigate against food insecurity in the country.

Minister Shaban was speaking Friday outside the Mombasa Municipal Council Hall when she presided over a food and agricultural organization (FAO) sponsored candle night vigil ahead of celebrations to mark the World Food Day.

The minister was accompanied by the FAO country representative Dr. Castro Camarada and Coast Provincial Commissioner Ernest Munyi.

She lamented that since her Ministry bore the brunt of the biting famine through spending billions of shillings to buy relief food, it will adopt a spirited campaign of urging Kenyans to increase food production.

Dr. Shaban urged poor Kenyans to take advantage of a shillings one billion free planting seeds package and subsidized fertilizer imported by the National Cereals and produce Board during the current rains to fight hunger and starvation country-wide.

The Minister also appealed to Kenyans in areas with erratic rain patterns to embrace the recently unveiled economic stimulus programme of tapping water from both seasonal and permanent rivers to increase irrigation farming.

Irrigation

Addressing the same meeting the coast Provincial Commissioner Ernest Munyi said that the biting drought which devastated most parts of the country recently exposed over one million people in the region to severe food shortages forcing the government to spend billions of shillings on relief foods.

Consequently the administrator urged area residents to partner with agricultural technical staff to translate the economic stimulus programme of tapping all water masses for irrigation purposes.

Munyi said irrigation farming was the only solution to food insecurity in Coast Province majority of whose districts were arid and semi arid.