Experts calls for radical reforms in Kenya’s food system, tell me about this news in (https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2026-09-14-experts-call-for-radical-reforms-in-food-system)

In this report by The Star, agricultural experts call for comprehensive, structural reforms in Kenya’s food systems to make them more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive in the face of climate shocks like droughts and floods.Key details and takeaways from the news report include:1. Fragility of Current Food Systems

• Climate Vulnerability: Food systems expert Nancy Rapando noted that seasonal shocks, such as recent severe droughts, quickly deplete the country’s food baskets, demonstrating that the current system lacks resilience.
• Over-reliance on Subsidies: Rapando pointed out that a large share of Kenya’s agricultural budget focuses heavily on fertilizer subsidies rather than diversification. In several cases, chemical fertilizer use without healthy soil management led to crop damage during dry spells.

2. Economic Importance vs. Production Deficits

• Economic Backbone: Agriculture contributes approximately 22.4% of Kenya’s GDP, employs over 60% of the formal and informal workforce, and supports the livelihoods of more than 80% of the population.
• Lagging Output: Domestic food production is failing to keep pace with population growth, forcing the country to rely increasingly on food imports to meet basic consumption demands.

3. Massive Food Loss

• Kenya loses an estimated 40% of its total annual agricultural outputamounting to roughly 9 million tonnes of food worth around Sh72 billion ($578 million).
• About half of these losses happen during the post-harvest handling, storage, and processing phases.

4. Proposed Solutions and Strategic Interventions

• Agroecology and Soil Health: Experts advocate shifting toward regenerative agriculture and agroecological practices. This includes combining organic and inorganic inputs, utilizing biological fertilizers, and planting resilient indigenous seed varieties that require fewer commercial inputs.
• Land Tenure Reform: There is a pressing need to address land ownership barriers that prevent women and youthwho perform substantial agricultural laborfrom accessing and investing in land.
• Financing Smallholders: Anthony Mugambi, Country Director of Kilimo Trust Kenya, highlighted that smallholders produce 30% of global food yet receive less than 2% of international climate finance. He urged financial institutions to move away from requiring land title deeds as collateral, suggesting group-based lending models grounded in farmer aggregation capacity and trade records.
• Technology Adoption: Leveraging modern solutionssuch as drones, improved seed varieties, and expanding digital connectivity via the planned national fiber-optic rolloutcan provide farmers with real-time weather and market data to curb post-harvest losses and modernize operations.