Kenya turns to science, technology for food production

KENYAN scientists and researchers are putting heads together in search of lasting solutions to address the perennial challenges of food shortages in most rural parts of the country.

Some parts of Kenya are semi-desert with low annual rainfall and high temperatures, resulting in poor agricultural yields.

Already the government of President Mwai Kibaki has been supporting areas such as food security through science, research and production of new hybrid crop seeds to address the problem of food shortages in the east African nation.

“Kenya used to produce enough for its nation, but because of the changing weather patterns, endless droughts are beginning to catch up with us.

“But our government appears to have noticed the looming crisis, and we are presently seeing university researchers, scientists from the corporate world, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and government coming together with the aim of producing short-term crop varieties in the country,” said Oswald Otieno, a researcher.

This year could be another bad one for Kenya, but with researchers and scientists implementing government initiatives in the areas of research, science and technology, the other vulnerable countries in Africa may soon be able to reduce their perennial food deficits that have seen mainly children and women dying of hunger in other parts of Africa, such as Somalia, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo—ITNewsAfrica.