An international chemical company is offering support farmers to boost production by linking them to quality input suppliers and modern innovations.
World Food Programme links low productivity in Kenya, and indeed most low and middle income countries, to recycling planting materials and use of ‘old’ techniques that cannot meet demands of the evolving agribusiness and climate change.
BASF’s East Africa Crop Protection Manager Gift Mbaya said the company seeks to accelerate production through ‘Farming, the biggest job on earth’ campaign for a food secure and economically stable community.
The initiative includes connecting farmers to suppliers of drought tolerant and fast maturing planting materials for food sufficiency and economic stability through agribusiness.
“BASF creates the chemistry that equips farmers with the skills of improving productivity. The person producing food-the most basic of human needs-has the biggest job to do. BASF wants to make every seed count,” Mbaya said.
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According to the International Food Policy Research Institute’s Global Hunger Index, Kenya is among the top 50 countries struggling to feed its people.
The report adds that one in every five Kenyan adults and one in every four children are malnourished.
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It is against this background that the company resorted to supporting farmers in dealing with the local and global food crisis now and in the future, given that the population is growing against constant land resource and the farming portion is shrinking.
Besides, BASF would link the farmers to its production experts for skill-sharing on how to maintain soil fertility, irrigation, among other crop husbandry techniques.
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The chemical company also trades in farm inputs.