Government Wants Kenyans to Embrace Rice as Substitute for Ugali

The Ministry of Agriculture wants Kenyans to embrace the consumption of other foodstuffs away from maize due to the current shortage being witnessed across the world.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi says that his ministry has been facing challenges in accessing maize imports from food reserves of other countries.

Linturi asked Kenyans to substitute maize with rice and potatoes due to the acute shortage.

“The sad story out there is that maize is such a rare commodity that we are not able to get maize out there. During your weekend outings and interaction with your constituents let them also try appreciating that rice can be a substitute for starch, potatoes, and others,” Linturi said.

“Some countries are not willing to share their maize with us because they are more concerned about their food security situation,” he added.

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At the same time, Linturi revealed that unga prices will drop in the next ten days, as the government is set to import 1.4 million metric tonnes of maize and 1.1 metric tonnes of rice to address the acute shortage of the commodities in the market.

“Those are some of the interventions that we have just made in the short term to address the deficits we can foresee in the very near future,” stated Linturi.

“Ordinarily prices are supposed to be fixed in a normal market by the forces of demand and supply.The government has put a duty waiver and we expect once the commodity comes into the country then the prices of these commodities will come down,” Linturi said.

A 90kg bag of maize is currently retailing at an average price of Sh5,600 but with cheaper imports, this may drop significantly to as low as less than Sh2,000.