IFAP President Jack Wilkinson's Visit to Kenya

8 - 13 June 2005

The President of IFAP, Mr. Wilkinson in an effort to better understand the concerns of farmers in developing countries made a six- day visit to Kenya. He participated in government programmes as well as projects of IFAP’s member organisation in Kenya, The Kenya Federation of Agricultural Producers (KENFAP). He had opportunity to interact with farmers in their fields and high government officials.

On the first day of his visit, the IFAP President, with the Chairman of KENFAP, Mr. Nduati Kariuki, made a courtesy to the Canadian Embassy where they held discussions on the work of the Canadian government and Canadian development agencies in Kenya. The ambassador was also at hand to welcome the President. While the programmes of the Canadian government are not really in the Agricultural sector, interesting areas of collaboration with the farmer organisation were discussed especially in the livestock sector in the arid and semi-arid areas.

Mr Wilkinson informed the embassy staff that the biggest challenge of farmers world-wide is the ever shrinking farm incomes. For this reason farmers need to work together to learn from each and there is a need for development agencies to help farmers in developing countries in;

• Development of appropriate technology for the small-holder farmer.
• Developing linkages with development agencies especially bringing the examples of what has proved to work in other parts of the world; the example of the Canadian cooperatives which have served the farmer well could be shared under the area of cooperative development.

The President emphasised the need to develop strong farmers organisations to accelerate growth of agriculture and hence the overall economic growth.

This was followed by a meeting with three Permanent Secretaries from:  the Office of the President, Mr. Mahboud, the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Ogwae, and the Ministry of Fisheries Eng. Stower. The Permanent Secretaries welcomed the IFAP President on behalf of the Kenyan government and explained the new Strategy for Revitalising Agriculture (SRA). Measures have been put in place to improve the Agricultural sector with increases in budgetary allocations to the sector. (The government budget was read the same day and there was a 74% increase to the agricultural sector). Towards this end a national farmer’s forum has been formed and KENFAP is the lead in this. The Chairman of KENFAP confirmed that the struggle by farmers to be involved in government decision-making structures has paid off with farmers’ organisations being consulted on every issue affecting farmers. This he attributed to the new leadership in Kenya which is keen to serve the people and improve the performance of the country as a whole.

The Permanent Secretaries said as a result of globalisation and liberalisation, more and more rules and regulations especially on trade are not determined at the local/National level anymore, for this reason they would like very much to know the messages of IFAP especially on issues of developing countries and would be willing to contribute to these discussions. They said farmers should not talk to and among themselves only; they should also involve government and let them know their concerns. They hoped they could get a chance to participate in some of the IFAP forum.

Mr. Wilkinson commended the collaboration of farmers and the government. He went on to explain the role of farmers organisations and IFAP, the main one being to lobby government to listen and involve farmers in decision and planning of the sector. For this reason it is always very encouraging when some measure of success has been noted. At the international level there is still a lot of work to be done with development agencies to work with farmers as real partners. Mr Wilkinson promised to continue voicing the concerns of developing countries especially for increasing investments to the agricultural sector and to have fair trade rules.

As a guest of the government of Kenya, the IFAP President was able to witness the on-going work in the education sector. The government introduced free primary education in the year 2003 and the enrolment in schools has more than doubled with challenges of facilities and teachers. Mr. Wilkinson was able to witness the effort of decentralised management on-going in the country with a visit with the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education during the World Education Day.

With the Kenya Federation of Agricultural Producers (KENFAP), Mr. Wilkinson visited the farmer-to-farmer extension work being undertaken by KENFAP. Groups of farmers are carrying out training among themselves facilitated by a regional coordinator. They do their own planning and take decisions on the areas of training and joint projects. KENFAP, through support from Agriterra, gives them seed money to accelerate the implementation of their projects and thus earn some income, which is a big challenge for most the small-holder farmers. Mr. Wilkinson noted that this was a different system from the one in his own country and has contributed enormously to his understanding and better appreciation of the differences in the two systems. He offered his commitment to getting resources to continue helping these kind of initiatives, which with only little seed money, can transform the lives of many families as was narrated.  

 

The highlight of the visit was visit to a Mr. Gichohi’s farm;  Mr. Gichohi farm is in a proper rural set up with all the constraints of water, road and access to other services like health facilities and infrastructure. However, with only 0.6 of an acre, he is producing all his food needs including, tea, coffee, honey and fruits. He said he buys only soap and sugar. He has also got a commercial enterprise of poultry and dairy cows and he has been able to meet all his other needs out of these enterprises, including taking his children to school. It is a clear indication of how small –holder farmers can be highly successful. He is leading a group of 3000 small-holdr farmers like himself to be

 

The last meeting was with the high level officials of government in the Ministries of Agriculture and Trade, KENFAP board members, strategic partners and commodity associations. There were discussions on the Agricultural sector at the global level and the challenges that all farmers face especially in the market place. The low prices for farmers were a big discussion item and the farmers were happy to learn that this is not an isolated case but affects farmers all over the world. Mr. Wilkinson again called on farmers to be involved in the discussions of the different agreements that the governments sign leaving the farmers to bear the consequences. This can only happen when farmers work together in their institutions and support each other. It is therefore important to build strong, responsible farmers’ organisations which will get the necessary recognition and respect from the government.