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We are utterly dismayed at the fact that Unga (maize flour) prices have hiked back to KES 120/- per 2 kg packet. This even as Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Minister for Agriculture William Ruto have not yet recovered from a marathon public relation exercise duping Kenyans that the government has subsidized Unga price to cost KES 52/-for the poor and KES 72/- for the rich, per 2kg packet.

This present hike in price of Unga is even more alarming coming less than a month in the wake of Prime Minister’s launch of the feed the nation program that gave us above alleged subsidized prices. Yet there is no known Kenyan who can testify to the taste of the subsidized Bamba 50 unga?

If the two principals – President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga – can remember, the food agenda is the first priority item that Kenyans presented to the Coalition Government within one month of its formation. The matter of food is a life and death issue! World over, any government’s priority mandate is to ensure citizens’ security from within and without. Food is a basic human right. Food supports life and from life all other human rights emanate. Without food security there is really no need for external security. In this regard, can the government of Kenya really claim to protect Kenyans? Can the government of Kenya dare to claim to respect and uphold any human rights? Can the government of Kenya claim to be responsive and sensitive to its citizens? Is there any�reason for the two principal being in power if at minimum they can�not�ensure�Kenyans have�even just one meal� a day?

It is now a year after thousands of urban poor Kenyans were clobbered, tear-gassed and arrested by Kenya’s state machinery of violence – the Kenya Police – and charged with illegal assembly for coming to the streets of Nairobi to dramatize their struggles and agony over inaccessibility of food due to unchecked increase of basic commodity prices; especially of Unga.

Although driven back to their hovels by the uncaring leadership, Kenyans would not be broken. Instead, Kenyans have kept up the struggle for survival: adopted skip-a-meal-a day program, eaten rats, wild tubers and berries; fed their children on alcohol to cheat hunger, risked their lives in the petrol fire tragedy and even risked jail or death for petitioning Mr. President on this man-made food scarcity.

Mr President and Mr Prime Minister, now that more and more Kenyans are already succumbing to starvation, what should we say to you and of you as our leaders? When you coalesced your campaign promises, your campaign pledges and your campaign manifestos under grand coalition government, we had imagined that we shall have grand solutions to our grand problems. However, we are rudely awakening to the fact that close to 50 years after the independence promise to get Kenyans out of poverty and 10 years after the NARC dream promise of prosperity, millions of Kenyans remain shackled in the poverty shame of hunger and starvation. Do you sleep peacefully in your mansions after evening news shots of hungry Kenyans gone wild on snake delicacy? How do you feel when you travel abroad to countries with serious leadership about their citizens’ needs? Do you ever feel ashamed at your claim of Kenya’s sovereignty when you put out the begging bowl to foreigners? President Obama was sworn just the other day, how come he�seems to be doing�so much compared to your a year old leadership?

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Your Excellencies, why should we beg for emergency food aid of KES 37 billion when in the last government financial year you presided over the loss of KES 200 billion through corruption, pilferage and mismanagement? How could you, while Kenyans are starving, spend in 3 days close to KES 100 million convening 2000 people for the Kenya we want to discuss what we presumed you were aware of or at least was in your manifestos, as you pursued the highest office? Why haven’t you arrested and charged those who stole and sold our maize to Southern Sudan? When shall�you�hold the Minister for Agriculture and cornies to account�for the messy politics of maize?�If you�are aware about the economics of fuel on basic commodity availability, why do you let fuel cartels go on unabated? When shall we have the Minister for Energy in the dock for abetting fuel crimes? If you knew how hunger erodes human dignity, you would understand why poor Kenyans risk their lives whenever a petrol tanker gets is involved in accident. Again, Why can’t you firmly deal with profiteer rackets in the maize industry led by members of parliament and their business cronies? And again, we ask, when shall we have an end to messy politics being played with our Unga?

The maize scandal like other corruptions in your government must at all costs not be downplayed and must be named for the economic sabotage that it is. Without food, Kenyans are not able to work and even begin to achieve minimum personal or national development goals. Without food, billions of shillings invested in free primary education will be wasted as children won’t go to school. Without food, billions of money spent on anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS patients will not achieve much due to poor nutrition. Without food, the basic unit of the society�the family�will be threatened as pressure and tension increase on family breadwinners who cannot provide for their dependants. Without food, it will not take long for ethnic tension to resurface to threaten our shaky national cohesion as communities resort to fighting over scarce resources.

Kenya is not the only country globally, facing a financial and/or food crisis. However, where other countries’ leaders are actively exploring viable solutions to their citizens’ harsh lives and working overtime to acquaint each citizen with the recovery plan, Kenya’s leaders seem to be caught in a game of guesswork. For instance you came up with a government plan to subsidize Unga to cost KES. 52/- per 2kg packet but this Unga never got to the kiosk near those who desperately needed it and now it is become clear to all of us that that Unga no longer exists. How can this be when the conditions that pressured you to this action still exist and are even worse? Was the declaration of Bamba 50/- unga for “the poor” one of those Moi’s roadside populistic empty declaration?

This flip flop government policy on Unga has now confirmed to us, the army of workers, poorly paid, starving taxpayers, that our leadership, no, your leadership: the President, the Prime Minister, Members of Parliament and the political elite lack the humane spirit to drive�you to volitionally stem hunger and famine related difficulties. Therefore, we as the nation’s workers and the taxpayers demand as follows:

1. Stop games on the food issue and urgently adopt robust mechanisms to stem the rising tide of anarchy of hungry and angry Kenyans�our patience is painfully worn out and in not so long we will be forced to vividly express our frustration.
2. The President and Prime Minister must take steps to order an immediate cut down on all wasteful government expenditures, including Mr Prime Minister’s luxurious new office purchase.
3. The government takes immediate action, including removal of taxes on basic commodities. On the same, since many Kenyans are unemployed with shaky income, we further demand that the price reduction on Unga is made to KES 30/= per 2kg packet. Further still, all old people living in Kenyan must be provided with free food on government’s tub.
4. All lawmakers must pay taxes including the President and Prime Minister and must with immediate effect take salary cuts or forefeit it as a patriotic act and to show solidarity with the 10 million plus Kenyans that are facing death from starvation.
5. Quickly review the agriculture laws and policies to facilitate a sustainable food security strategy to be adopted.
6. Considering the importance of the Ministry for Agriculture in food production and the centrality of food to all else that pertains to life, including personal and national development, we demand that the Ministry for Agriculture be allocated not KES. 10 billion but as much as KES. 90 billion in the national budget. Further, if it is necessary that the Ministry for Agriculture’s mandate be moved under the Office of the President in order that it receives adequate attention and budgetary allocation, then this must be fast-tracked.
7. The government must together with addressing the food issue, likewise concentrate on dealing with inter-connected issues such as creating environment for job creation, proper priority national budgeting and ending political impunity in the form of corruption involving basic commodities.
8. Kenyans refuse to have people that have been heavily implicated in grand corruption especially maize cartels to continue enjoying public office and flying our flag. We demand that that the President and Prime Minister fires all legislators implicated in maize cartels must desist from engaging in any public appointment and forthwith vacate their public office.
9. If you do not listen to us, the people, we shall have no option but give ourselves�a fresh�leadership.

In the modern world, food scarcity, hunger and starvation can no longer be blamed on weather elements alone but must rest squarely on bad leadership. Therefore, Kenyans sternly warn that if this leadership does nothing or is seen to be doing something concrete in the next 30 days, Kenyans will have no choice but to take it upon themselves to make it extremely difficult for you current leaders to continue to hold office, carry out business as usual and fly our flags on their obscenely luxurious automobiles.

In straight language, Mr President and Mr. Prime Minister, you have the State tools, State power and State resources to ensure our security, especially food security for all Kenyans. Therefore, if you do not take appropriate emergency and long term action in our best interests, us- Wananchi will have no choice but bring down your leadership and install for ourselves a leadership that is responsive, people sensitive and accountable.

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Signed by George Nyongesa

for Bunge la Mwananchi

Bunge la Mwananchi is a grass root people’s movement that organizes platforms to resist oppression, fight social injustices and demand accountable leadership at all levels in Kenya.

WEST AFRICA: Can organic cotton save the industry?

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Photo: Nicolas Boll/BioCotton Project

Recession has leveled recent growth of organic cotton sector (file photo)

DAKAR,� – Fuel and fertiliser price hikes, insect infestations and chemical damage to soil have led some cotton farmers in West Africa to produce organic cotton. But�the international recession has blunted demand for the new crop, according to an industry trade group.

Global organic cotton production grew by more than 150 percent to 145,000 metric tons in 2008�an estimated 0.55 percent of total cotton production, according to the US-based non-profit Organic Exchange, which promotes and monitors organic agriculture. Though West African cotton growers produced only about two percent of this amount, this was double the region’s yield of 2007.

But the global financial crisis has posed a headache for promoters of organic cotton, said Jens Soth with the Swiss NGO Helvetas, which promotes farmers’ livelihoods through organic agriculture.

The financial crisis has reduced business’s appetite for risk. Companies are still honouring their organic cotton contracts, but demand is not growing. They are waiting to see how their consumers react [to the recession].

Soth told IRIN more farmers want to join Helvetas’s programmes that have trained farmers and monitored and purchased organic cotton from nearly 10,000 farmers in Mali, Burkina Faso and Kyrgyzstan since 2002. But we are not taking on more farmers now. Not in this climate. I hope we can even sell this year’s production.

Despite the grim economic outlook Soth said he is optimistic that the organic market can withstand a downturn. He said Helvetas’s buyers, including the US-based Victoria’s Secret lingerie store and Swiss companies – including cotton trading firm Reinhart, retailer Migros and textile group Switcher – have not cancelled their orders, but demand has levelled.

Photo: Brahima Ouedraogo/IRIN

Conventional cotton farmers in Burkina Faso have had dwindling incomes despite increased production (file photo)

Burkina Faso

One of West Africa’s top cotton exporters, Burkina Faso became the world’s 10th largest organic cotton producer in 2008 with 2,000 metric tons, double the amount of the previous year, according to Organic Exchange.

While organic cotton commands a higher price than non-organic, it might not be worth the trouble, the head of Burkina Faso’s cotton producer association told IRIN.

It is not easy to cultivate organic cotton, said National Union of Burkinabe Cotton Producers president, Francois Traore. The members [of the union] do not grow organic cotton even though they promote it.

Traore said it is becoming increasingly difficult to stay competitive because producers in India “have started undercutting organic prices.” Burkina Faso producers of organic cotton earn about 50 US cents per kilo.

Profits have also been lower than for conventional cotton because even though farmers earn up to 30 percent more per kilo, yields are less than half on average, Traore said.

Pesticide-free cultivation requires crop rotation and manual weeding and fertilising, which limit cotton production, according to the cotton association president.

One advantage of organic cotton, which is produced without chemicals, is that women excluded from agriculture that uses heavy pesticides are able to participate, according to Traore. Some 70 percent of organic producers in this country are women. [With traditional cotton] the fumes [from pesticide spraying] are noxious for children [who are with their mothers at work] and pregnant women.

Long-term profit

Smaller yields are to be expected initially when switching to organic cotton, according to a 2008 comparison of organic and conventional cotton in Mali by Canada’s University of Moncton.

Researchers wrote that because organic cultivation requires crop rotation, which decreases the land available for cotton, it can take at least four years before new crops and improved soil fertility compensate for the loss in income.

But even if there is a short-term shortfall in profits, the researchers wrote, the long-term health and environmental benefits from non-chemical cultivation outweigh any losses.

The researchers concluded that over the long term, as long as cheap labour is available chemical-free cotton farming is more profitable than conventional cotton, can decrease rural poverty by employing more women and can improve soil management.

Benin

In Benin some 1,500 producers produced 500 metric tons of organic cotton in 2008, according to the country’s Organisation for the Promotion of Organic Agriculture.

Helvetas’s representative in Benin, Evelyne Sissinto, told IRIN high fertiliser and fuel prices plus environmental degradation have started pushing farmers into organic production.

She told IRIN organic cotton production is about livelihood as much as it is about agriculture. “Helvetas offers cotton producers a minimum guaranteed price and families no longer have to go into debt to buy expensive fertilisers and pesticides.”

Helvetas pays farmers up to 59 cents per kilo, in addition to providing organic certification, training and follow-up help, according to Sissinto.

Market share

While thousands of farmers have begun producing organic cotton in West Africa, the majority of the region’s cotton farmers still grow conventional cotton.

In Burkina Faso 350,000 farmers practice conventional cotton farming and slightly fewer in Benin, according to the countries’ trade groups. Organic producers form 0.1 percent of growers in both countries.

But no matter how long it takes, agriculture researcher Jeanne Zoudjihekpon in Benin’s economic capital Cotonou, told IRIN it is time farmers come full circle to their natural roots. Our ancestors grew things organically and did not know anything about chemicals. If we want to stay true to ourselves, we can do only organic cultivation.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization has named 2009 the International Year of Natural Fibres to help promote a sector that has typically brought in $40 billion annually – mostly in cotton earnings – but has shrunk in recent years because of losses in the conventional cotton sector.

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source.www.irinnews.org