Policies for agriculture consist of government decisions that influence the level and stability of input and output prices, public investments affecting agricultural production, costs and revenues and allocation of resources. These policies affect agriculture either directly or indirectly.
Improved agricultural production has been seen as one of the overall objectives for poverty reduction in the country. The objectives of agricultural sector strategy have been increasing agricultural growth, seen as important for increasing rural incomes and ensuring equitable distribution.
Due to limited availability of high potential land, it has been envisaged that increasing agricultural production will have to come from intensification of production through increased use of improved inputs, diversification especially from low to high value crops, commercialization of smallholder agriculture, and increased value addition through stronger linkages with other sectors.
In the following sections, FSPN works with relevant stakeholders to develop and see the successful implementation of policies in the food security value chain; review some of the key policy issues and concerns with respect to the sector’s development and achieving Sustainable Zero Hunger.
Agricultural policy in Kenya ,which is a representation of many African countries , revolves around the main goals of increasing productivity and income growth, especially for smallholders; enhanced food security and equity, emphasis on irrigation to introduce stability in agricultural output, commercialization and intensification of production especially among small scale farmers; appropriate and participatory policy formulation and environmental sustainability.
The key areas of policy concern, therefore, include:
• Increasing agricultural productivity and incomes, especially for small-holder farmers.
• Emphasis on irrigation to reduce over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture in the face of limited high potential agricultural land.
• Encouraging diversification into non-traditional agricultural commodities and value addition to reduce vulnerability.
• Enhancing the food security and a reduction in the number of those suffering from hunger and hence the achievement of SDGs.
• Encouraging private-sector-led development of the sector and Ensuring environmental sustainability.
We as FSPN-Africa take a keen diversion to look into the farmers welfare which most often is overlooked. According to FAO report, 2017; Eighty percent of the farmland in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is managed by smallholders :- working on up to 10 hectares. Out of the 2.5 billion people in poor countries living directly from the food and agriculture sector, 1.5 billion people are smallholder farmers.
Many of those households are extremely poor: overall, the highest incidence of workers living with their families below the poverty line is associated with employment in agriculture. Smallholder farmers provide up to 80 percent of the food supply in sub-Saharan Africa. Their economic viability and contributions to diversified landscape and culture is threatened by competitive pressure from globalization and integration into common economic areas; their fate is either to disappear and become purely self-subsistence producers, or to grow into larger units that can compete with large industrialized farms. This forms the basis at which we operate as an Organization alongside our partners.
