Jordan Wilson
10/1/10
4:05 pm
The World Bank has approved another grant to support Kenya’s agricultural productivity and environmental management. This is a US$10 million grant to help increase food production and encourage new and more effective land use that does not harm the environment. This grant comes after three grants approved in 2009. In April, a US$5 million Kenya Agricultural Input Supply grant was approved. One month later, the Bank approved both the US$82 million Kenya Agricultural Productivity and Agribusiness Project grant and the US$90 million East Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme grant. The latter grant was approved for Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania. These grants are supposed to enable communities which have high erosion and land degradation hazards sustain their land and make use of their resources in ways that protect the environment. Because agriculture is a key economic pillar for Kenya, it is essential for their land to have optimal availability for their usage. Better land management and food production will help bring the country out of poverty and give its inhabitants more equity.
This all makes sense. Money to help educate people on how to effectively use their land yields more food production. Information on how to prevent erosion and degradation of the land will protect their environment, making it useful for longer. More food production and the assurance that it will be able to produce for a long time brings in more revenue for farmers. More money in the economy means more money in the pockets of the citizens and the reduction of those families living in poverty. The article states that the grants will be used to invest in micro-projects, strengthen enabling policies and institutions and support coordination, monitoring and evaluation activities. It does not give explicit information of what these projects and activities will entail. I am left wondering what kinds of projects and activities can help the production of food and better maintenance of the land, as well as address the inequality among Kenya’s people. I understand that better economy can help bring families out of poverty, but it can also stratify them even more, giving more to the haves and take more away from the have nots. There should be, in some of these policies, projects and activities that will specifically address the people who are desperately struggling more than those who are not.
1 comment:
That's great, let's hope Kenya is making good use nof this money.
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