Kenyan agriculture dislocates residents

A proposal by the Kenyan agriculture ministry seeks to move people from their land to town estates in a bid to create room for large scale farming. It’s good news, Kenya will invest in agriculture. But is this the way?

It seems good news that Kenya allocates 10 per cent of the total national budget to agriculture to alleviate poverty, create jobs and enhance food security. Not only because this finally copes with the Maputo Declaration, but for that it gives agriculture the appreciation it deserves.

Agriculture is the continent’s most neglected and important potential competitive advantage. That’s not what I say, that’s what Mark Ashurst and Stephen Mbithi from the Africa Research Institute learned us, with their publication ‘Why Africa can make it big in agriculture’.

Movement of millions

The policy proposes movement of millions of people in rural areas to town estates or settlement centres with a view to consolidate agriculture land and boost food production, the Daily Nation wrote. Will this Kenyan policy really be so great?

It sounds like a doubtful villagization program. What future is there for those people? And will they voluntarily leave their homes and the land of their ancestors?

Making farming attractive

And what about the agriculture they have in mind? The plan, the policy document adds, would enable application of better farming methods such as use of machinery, hence making farming attractive to millions of youth.

Millions of youth? Who will that be? Will it be the people that are forced from their land? Or will the land be sold to people who can afford it?

“I suspect that this Kenyatta government succumbs to the offer of land for foreign investors”, someone told me today.

Who is telling me this person is wrong? Is it really a step forward to institutionalise land grab? Or is this exactly the development that Kenya needs?

Please respond.
© Marc van der Sterren | Farming Africa

Why you could soon leave your land for town estates, Daily Nation, March 3 2015

‘Why Africa can make it big in agriculture’

Anne Cote says:

I don’t know very much about Kenyan politics but folks I talk to here in Canada who have some connections to Africa worry that the agriculture land is being bought by foreigners. If the plan is to grow food to be exported rather than made available to Kenyans, I’d be very suspicious of the government’s intentions. And will they ensure Kenyans receive the education and training they need to work on these farms. One machine can do the work of many women. Good if the women get better jobs and food. Not good if they are simply displaced.

FarmingAfrica says:

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Thanks Anne. I think you are right. It is appropriate to worry.

Eelke van der Werf says:

When asked what Kenyans call home, they will answer you: My ancestral land in …… . Even people in Nairobi who have a nice house to live in, still call the land of their fathers “home” and go there at least 4 times a year. Many own land there, close to or part of their fathers’ land. Often, that land is farmed by relatives, less educated and wealthy. This way everybody has a job and food and knows his of her family intimately; people take care of each other, cause there is no Government Welfare System.
This setup works for people in Kenya. Moving them will not only affect locals, but all Kenyans. There is no reason to go home anymore: the settlement centers have no room for city folks passing by. The family bond, which is typical for African people will fade. People will not prosper, but widespread poverty will be the result.
Yet, riches will come to the organizers of the scheme because this – again – is a great opportunity for corruption. Some tribes, the ones not well represented in Government, will loose their land and be marginalized; other tribes – or better: the wealthy, connected clans within these tribes – will get control over the land and so institutionalize their control over the whole country.

FarmingAfrica says:

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That’s quite a pessimistic view, you show here. But I’m afraid you may be right. But lets not panic. It’s still just a proposal. It will take years before it’s implemented, if all. Maybe it will be a nice testcase to see how democracy works.

Ska Java says:

While there is an up-side to large scale farming there is a huge down side to removing people from their subsistence farming and plopping them into an “estate” that will rapidly become a slum with formerly gainfully employed people now being unemployed. Then factor in the destruction of the microclimates when that land is clear cut for industrial farms, the pollution of rivers streams and wells by industrial fertilizer and pesticide run off (unchecked by greenswards found on most small farms) and so much more. If the government wants to get into the farming business there is plenty of government owned land to use. Depriving the small-hold farmer of their livelihood while destroying biodiversity is a bad move for everybody involved.

FarmingAfrica says:

at

Thanks very much Ska for your valuable thoughts.

A proposal by the Kenyan agriculture ministry seeks to move people from their land to town estates in a bid to create room for large scale farming. It’s good news, Kenya will invest in agriculture. But is this the way?

Movement of millions

Making farming attractive

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