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Kenya Food Security Update
FEWSNET
15 Feb 2008
Food insecurity continues to accentuate among populations
displaced by post-election conflict as well as among the urban
poor, whose employment opportunities have narrowed.
Unseasonable January rains appear to have salvaged some crop in
the southeastern lowlands. However, substantial crop losses had
already been incurred due to the poor short-rains season,
compounding food insecurity from this point forward for the short
rains-dependent farmers.
While pastoralists' pasture, browse and water availability have
benefited from January rains, food security has visibly declined
in the northeast and northwest, exhibited by rising malnutrition
and lowered terms-of-trade.
On-going conflict has caused livestock and cereal farm-gate prices
to decrease due to constrained market access, limiting household
income-earning capacity. In contrast, consumer prices for goods
and services have increased.
Overall national maize supply for the July 2007 to June 2008
marketing year is expected to decline significantly, due to a
combination of crop failure in the short rains-dependent
southeastern lowlands and pre- and post-harvest losses in Kenya's
grain basket, which is also the epicenter of the current
post-election conflict.
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