{"id":3097,"date":"2019-06-15T07:33:48","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T07:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=3097"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:21","slug":"food-security-should-be-top-budget-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/06\/15\/food-security-should-be-top-budget-priority\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Security Should Be Top Budget Priority"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>By ALEXANDER G. OWINO<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is\nachieving food security for all Kenyans a mirage? Is it really a priority for policymakers,\nbeyond its inclusion in the much hyped Big Four Agenda?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kenya\u2019s food security\nseems to be worsening by the day. In April, the National Drought Management\nAuthority classified the food security situation in 10 counties as \u201ccritical\u201d.\nThis could turn into a full-blown national emergency. The prices of Kenya\u2019s\nstaple foods are rising sharply, limiting affordability. Delays in the onset of\nlong rains and forecasts of below-average rainfall will reduce food situation\nas well as lower food output and yields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why do these issues\nmatter? The nation\u2019s precarious food security deserves to be the national\ngovernment\u2019s top budget priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Budget allocations to\nagriculture and food security in the next financial year are a paltry 3.2\npercent of National Government revenues. This is grossly inadequate for a\npriority sector that is also a pillar in the Big 4 Agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spending on food\nsecurity is trending downwards, and has fallen from 3.5 percent of revenues in\n2016\/2017. Growth in total voted expenditure is also outpacing growth in\nspending on agriculture and food\u2026<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessdailyafrica.com\/analysis\/columnists\/Food-security-should-be-top-budget-priority\/4259356-5156626-e75yhjz\/index.html\">Read\nmore&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By ALEXANDER G. OWINO Is achieving food security for all Kenyans a mirage? Is it really a priority for policymakers, beyond its inclusion in the much hyped Big Four Agenda?&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}