1. Policy Dualism Will Ensure Food Security?
Kenya, like many other African countries, has lately been governed by a dual economic
policy framework, whereby the public and the private sectors are meant to work in tandem to
achieve the development aspirations of the populace but against a contradictory regulatory
regime. Policy dualismbasically refers to conflicting parallel strategies used to direct any critical
sector of a single economic entity. For example there has been increased private sector
participation in the provision of higher education in Kenya, whereby universities founded by
private sector entities, including churches, have been allowed to offer degree courses. Whereas
the wages in the public universities are determined by the state, the private sector universities
can in principle set their own wages depending on their surpluses.
This development is in line with the economic liberalization mantra that was vigorously
promoted by the Bretton Woods institutions in the early nineties. In a nutshell, the economic
think-tanks thought that it was absolutely unnecessary for the government to be involved in
any profit-oriented commercial or economic activity, except perhaps in the defence industry.
But many have watched the reaction to the unfolding oil and food prices crises in Kenya and the
rest of the developing world with utter bemusement; the Kenyan government has sought to
increase its participation in the downstream activities of the oil supply chain through the
expansion of the government owned National Oil Corporation. And the Kenyan parliament has
tried to introduce protectionist measures such as price controls for basic food commodities
with minimal success.
Against the background of the recently enacted constitution which guarantees the
“right to food to every person”, one may cheekily pose the question: Is the government going
to have state farms this time round? Or, can the private sector be trusted to ensure food
security to every citizen, including the down-and-out of our society? The simple answer to the
first question may be ‘NO’. But the answer to the second question is ‘certainly NO’.
It is true that the Kenyan government has been involved in some protectionist measures
with regard to the agricultural sector. For instance, loans to farmers have been easily written
off in some cases. There is considerable chunk of land held under the auspices of the
Agricultural Development Corporation which is used for crop and animal production. And
agricultural extension services are practically back into the hands of the government, thanks to
the Grand Coalition policies. These protectionist policies should be amplified, especially with
regard to small-scale farmers if they have to move from the old rut of subsistence.
Today, many agree that the only way to banish extreme hunger from our landscape is to
make the small-scale farmer effectively use his piece of land. The main impediments to
producing sufficient food for these people are lack of inputs, lack of credit, lack of irrigation

2. water and little technical support. In some parts of Kenya, smallholder farmers have been
contracted by major commercial agricultural enterprises which offer them the necessary
technical and financial support, and then buy their produce which is largely sent to export
markets. But a large fraction of the smallholders who can produce our staple crops are not a
happy lot.
The most critical factor affecting their agricultural production is lack of agricultural
machinery which implies they cannot prepare their land in good time. Agricultural machinery is
expensive and can only be realistically availed to smallholder farmers through machinery
sharing schemes, run by cooperatives or government subsidized mechanization units. And if the
government is intent on supplying ‘subsidized’ fuel through the National Oil Corporation, then
we should see more state interventions in smallholder farming as well. Perhaps, it is that kind
of policy dualism for the agricultural sector that will assure food price stability in the long run.
The writer teaches Agricultural Engineering and Project Management at JKUAT.