The Cassava Farming Conundrum: Kenya’s Reliance on Imports Amidst Rising Demand

Kenya is relying on cassava importation from neighboring countries to meet high demand for the food product locally.

Self Help Africa Head of Programmes Peter Aluoch says local demand for cassava grew to 3 million metric tonnes (MT) in last year, below production of 946,076 MT under 61,592 hectares.

The tuber crop pent-up usage is linked to the expansion of cassava utilization beyond human consumption into use in animal feeds and starch for industries.

“In 2020, the country produced 898,110 MT of cassava from 61,754 ha translating to productivity of 14.54 tons/ha. This is lower compared to 16 – 24 tons/ha in China, Indonesia, and Thailand,” Aluoch says.

In the East African region, Kenya is the least producer of cassava, as Uganda produces 4 million MT while Tanzania produces 8 million MT per year, attributable to the lack of clean planting materials, unstructured markets, weak seed systems, and a weak regulatory framework.

In Kenya, cassava is mainly grown in coastal, central, and western Kenya for food, income, and livestock feed.

Despite its importance, the yields obtained are far from the agronomic potential of this crop.

“The traditional production systems are failing to address the household food security and income. In the Coastal region for example, cassava is considered an important food crop and production accounts for 30 percent of the total national production. In the Eastern region, production accounts for less than 10 percent of the country’s production,” he added.

In the Western region, cassava is considered an important food crop, and its production accounts for 60 percent of the total national production.

The latest data indicates that the average cassava farm yields are low, at approximately 7–10 MT/ha, compared to the research yield potential of about 50 MT/ha of fresh cassava tubers.

State Department Crop Development and Agricultural Research Principal Secretary Paul Rono raised concerns over the huge import bill for food.

“We are still importing food despite the fact that we have fertile land and resources. We have challenges in food security and the commercialization of the same. The government has put up a model to promote each and every crop grown in Kenya. Today’s discussion in this forum is aligned to this agenda,” Rono added.

He directed the department in charge of crops, Kalros and Kephis, to move in the next three months to make sure that all the varieties of crops are identified, classified, and communicated to understand what it means so that we can promote our farmers.

“We have so many seedlings, some high performers, some low performers. We will make sure that all those breeds are brought to books in the next 3 months to reshape the sector and bring order within the system. We need to know which seed belongs where,” he added.

On her part, Morag Ferguson, Crop Germplasm Scientist and Molecular Breeder, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), says to increase the growth of cassava, high-quality cassava seeds will be critical to increasing production in Kenya.

“We need a new high yielding variety of seeds that are resistant to viruses. Right now, we are working with SHA on the Cassava Seed Tracker. This will improve traceability of seeds and will make it easy to tell the source of the mother plant,” she added.

The Conference and Expo, which started on Monday and brought together over 150 exhibitors and over 1,000 participants, started on Tuesday and will end on Thursday.

“Under the present economic crisis that include the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and resulting food and energy crises, surging inflation, debt tightening, as well as the climate emergency, underfunding for research, development and transfer of technology for cassava, will continue to limit the development and application of better agronomic practices,” said Adolfo Cires, Programme Manager, Finance and Private Sector Development, The European Union Delegation to the Republic of Kenya.

By: CORRESPONDENT