Experts root for traditional diet instead of maize
Stephen Too, a farmer in Kiobelel in Wareng District of Uasin Gishu County inspects his maize crop following an outbreak of a mysterious disease last month. Farmers rely on maize despite change in weather and diseases affecting production. Photo/Jared Nyataya
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Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) assistant director in charge of horticulture and industrial crops research, Lusike Wasilwa said that Crop rotation and leaning more towards drought-tolerant varieties are possible cures to the twin problems.
Diseases like cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure are increasingly afflicting Kenyans yet they can be reduced considerably if people went back to the traditional diet.
Dr Wasilwa says that besides traditional crops like sorghum, millet, vegetables, cassava, potatoes and beans maturing faster than maize, they have high nutritional value and are effective in fighting some diseases.
As the government battles a maize disease that has threatened production, scientists, nutritionists and food experts are calling for a change of attitude for farmers to tackle the changing climate and consistently feed the country.
Crop rotation and leaning more towards drought-tolerant varieties are possible cures to the twin problems, says Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) assistant director in charge of horticulture and industrial crops research Lusike Wasilwa.
“It’s sad that in Kenya, everyone thinks one can grow only maize. We need crop rotation to enrich soil fertility and fight off food insecurity,” said Dr Wasilwa.
She said besides traditional crops like sorghum, millet, vegetables, cassava, potatoes and beans maturing faster than maize, they have high nutritional value and are effective in fighting some diseases.
Diseases like cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure are increasingly afflicting Kenyans yet they can be reduced considerably if people went back to the traditional diet.
“Public education is important. What people require is appropriate information on diet diversification,” she said. “The perception that ugali (maize meal) is the only staple food has long been overtaken by events.”
The researcher said that many policies that could be implemented to spur agriculture had been ignored.
Dr Wasilwa said that Kenya grapples with food insecurity when it had the potential to produce a surplus for the export, due to wrong choice of priorities.
“It’s unfortunate that even research is donor driven where a donor dictates what the money donated should be used for,” she said. “This tends to leave us with limited options when it comes to addressing our top priorities.”
Dr Wasilwa said the private sector played a crucial role in complementing efforts to improve food production but there is a need for policy makers to ensure that their policies are implemented.
“A food and nutrition policy should be launched for adoption. The mango and guava trees live for years and can be promoted alongside other under produced crops like sweet potatoes and cassava,” the scientist said during a food security forum in Nairobi.
Dr Mueni Ndiku, a lecturer at the University of Eastern Africa, Baraton told the Business Daily that drought resistant crops had been relegated to the periphery.
“Instead of forging ahead to be proud of a food secure nation, Some Kenyans go without food to a level that the government declares the hunger a national disaster to attract international intervention,” said Dr Ndiku, the head family and consumer sciences department at the university.
Dr Ndiku attributes the shift to modern lifestyle to rural-urban migration where most households depend on processed foods as opposed to traditional diet.
“Many of us have picked and domesticated the lifestyle of the West without caution and this is to blame for a number of lifestyle diseases that many Kenyans are now grappling with,” said Dr Ndiku.
Dr Mukhusi Saha, a researcher and lecturer at Pwani University College in Mombasa said farmers should view agriculture as a commercial activity and asked farmers to embrace traditional crops like cassava.
“It’s a fact that the new generation is averse to ugali prepared from cassava flour because they feel it’s inferior. But research has proved that we can make the meal appealing to them by ensuring the end product is white since that is what they are used to,” Dr Saha told the Business Daily in an interview.
