NAIROBI (AFP) — Kenya on Monday said it was suspending imports of wheat until local farmers sell and clear their stocks, ending a stand-off between farmers and authorities.
"We (have assessed) our wheat importation regime to make sure that farmers sell all their produce," Agriculture Minister William Ruto told reporters in Nairobi.
Ruto said the decision to suspend imports was reached at a meeting with farmers last week.
In June, the government reduced wheat import duty from 35 percent to 10 percent to help address food shortages, but small-scale farmers took to the streets, complaining of a glut of wheat supplies from neighbouring countries, where duty is lower.
Kenya's total wheat requirement stands at 900,000 tonnes a year. Local farmers produce 300,000 tonnes a year, most of which could not reach the market because of the glut.
Ruto said the state-funded National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) will soon start buying wheat from the farmers at a fixed price in a bid to stabilise the price of the commodity.
The minister said that the threat of a food shortage that had rocked the country had subsided, although the country was still at risk from it.
"The situation is not as grave as we anticipated. We can now report that the stocks we have can last us until the end of August," he added.
The minister announced that the government would spend 70.5 million shillings (1.05 million dollars) to boost production of traditional crops that had been neglected by farmers.
"By the end of October, about four million clean cassava cuttings and 4.5 million vines will have to be distributed throughout the country," said Ruto.
He also a announced a 150-million-shilling (2.23 million dollar) partnership between the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, the Kenya Seed Company and the Agricultural Development Corporation to develop seeds for traditional crops.
Officials said the government will also start distributing sorghum seeds across the country's 62 arable districts to boost their production after the local brewery started making beer from white sorghum.
Home to 35 million people, Kenya was hit by a food shortage after the disputed December 27 elections touched off violence that killed 1,500 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.
In addition, it dealt a severe blow to the country's mainstay agricultural and tourism sectors, which are the biggest foreign exchange earners in East Africa's most powerful economy.
Steep global food and fuel prices have worsened overall inflation in the Kenya, pushing it to 31.5 percent in May, the highest since the mid-1990s when the economy nearly collapsed, before it fell to 29.3 in June.
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