Prevent future famines by aiding small farmers, minister tells UN

Kenya’s agriculture minister has appealed for seeds, irrigation plans and infrastructure to avoid a repetition of famine and food crises in the Horn of Africa “every two years”.

Sally Kosgei and other delegates at an emergency conference in Rome yesterday said the world needed to look beyond the starving populations’ immediate needs and focus on longer-term solutions for the region.

She told delegates at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation: “It is really very important that the world focus now on how to avoid yet another famine or many more famines.”

Tens of thousands of people are feared to have died in the famine, caused by war in Somalia and drought in the Horn of Africa – Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia. More than 12 million people need food aid, according to the United Nations.

Ms Kosgei said: “Long-term solutions we have put on the table have not been taken seriously by those we have met.”

“They seem to be more focused on what is to be done now, which is important,” she said, “but what to do to avoid a repetition of this every two years to us is very crucial.”

She called for drought-resistant crops, small irrigation plans to help small-scale farmers and infrastructure to allow for quicker transportation of food.