The government is reportedly planning to import yellow maize primarily to ease competition between animal feed manufacturers and human consumption millers for scarce white maize stocks occassioned by crop failure.
The consignment is seperate from the 25 million bags the government plans to import to bridge the national food deficit following widespread crop failures caused by severe drought affecting key maize growing areas like Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia counties.
The shortfall has been compounded by hoarding and speculative behaviour by some farmers and traders, straining availability of stocks for purchase from the local market for the National Strategic Food Reserves.
Speaking on August 19, Agriculture and Livestock Development Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe announced broader plans to allow private traders and the state to import up to 25 million bags of 90kgs to stabilise flour prices.
"Yes, we will import aize, we have already made arrangements for that so it's not a big deal, we will manage. The country is not going to go hungry."
Kagwe said the annual national maize demand is about 75 million bags but the drastic climatic conditions will see a reduction in this season's harvest to about 50 million bags only.
"There's a drought within most of our areas where we grow maize and these are some of the things we are talking about transformation - over reliance on rainfed agriculture. It's time for us to move more into irrigation-fed agriculture so that the kind of climatic changes that are happening will not impcat us as much as they are at this time."
The government issued a 30-day ultimatum to local maize hoarders to release their stocks into the market before subsidised commercial importation measures are fully triggered.
In April last year, the government approved the importation of 5.5 million non-GMO bags of yellow maize to alleviate the current pressure on white maize.
Kagwe said a 50 per cent duty waiver would apply to the imports, facilitating their entry into the country in response to the escalating competition between animal feed producers and maize millers for the limited white maize stocks.
During that time, the competition had contributed to a 26 per cent increase in the price of a 90-kilogram bag of maize.
According to the ministry, the domestic livestock demand of yellow maize is over one million tonnes annually.
The move to allow yellow maize imports reflects the government’s adaptive approach to addressing the nation’s food security challenges and economic needs.
Even though the imported yellow maize will be exclusively for animal feed production to stablise the cost of maize flour, records shows previous mass yellow maize imports ended up on dinning tables.
The severe nationwide drought in 1984 caused widespread crop failures and famine across Kenya, forcing the government to import yellow maize from the United States and Thailand as emergency relief food.
That year, rains failed across large parts of the country, destroying local white maize yields and decimating livestock.
To prevent mass starvation, the government and international donors brought in massive shipments of yellow maize as relief food was heavily rationed.
Ugali made from this yellow maize was viewed as an undesirable hardship meal.
