Food subsidy scheme for poor homes a blessing for small-scale farmers

He said on long term, the subsidy money should be used to fund projects where the poor participate and profits generated from those projects can be used to buy food.

Other analysts say that one of the major shortcomings of subsidy schemes of any nature is ensuring that those who deserve the subsidies receive them.

Last May, humanitarian groups Concern Worldwide, Oxfam, and Care International started a cash transfer scheme for several Nairobi slums.

A similar project was earlier this year started in northern Kenya through the Hunger and Safety Net (HSN) project mooted by the Ministry of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands and the Britain’s Department for International Development.

Estimates show that 3.8 million people in rural areas are extremely food insecure.

These include pastoralists in Marsabit, Isiolo, Samburu, and Tana River districts, and marginal agricultural farm households in parts of Mwingi and Kitui districts.

Selected families receive Sh2,150 every month.

More than 60,000 homes will receive monthly cash transfers to buy food.

The project will go on until 2017.

Proponents of the system say not everyone who is able to survive in any given economy.

“It happens even in the developed world. It is part of the social welfare system,” said Ms Anne O’Mahony, the country director of humanitarian group Concern Worldwide.

The subsidies are however not entirely used to buy food as demonstrated by the case of Mrs Lucie Atieno, a widow and mother of four who lives in Nairobi’s Kibera slums.

As a beneficiary of the scheme, she receives Sh2,200 through her mobile phone account every month.

“I have invested some in a vegetable vending business. The business is doing well and I hope to raise money to rent my own house,” she said.

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