Introduction
Once again, Kenya went through a period of serious food shortage in the year 2004, following failure of both the short and the long rains in almost all parts of the country.

This was a repeat of a similar experience during the 1999/2000 season when there was crop failure countrywide leading to Government’s declaration of famine as a national disaster.
However, between the two periods of food shortages there were two successive seasons of bumper harvest. The 2000/2001, and 2001/ 2002 crop seasons were characterized by sufficient rains all over the country leading to good performance of most food crops.

However, this dampened the market for the major staple food crop, maize, and most of the post harvest grain handlers including National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) were in a crisis as to how to dispose of their stocks. Farmers suffered equally for lack of a market outlet.

This swing, from shortages to a glut and dampening of the market has become a regular feature of Kenya’s rainfed agriculture, especially after the grain sub-sector in Kenya was liberalized in 1993. Before liberalization, NCPB – and its predecessor statutory bodies – had the responsibility of purchasing and marketing the entire marketable surplus crop in the country.

With this responsibility, the Board had the dual role of protecting the farmer from the vagaries of the market by setting its intake prices to cover production costs with a small profit margin and at the same time cushioning consumers through selling it at consumer friendly prices.

For many decades this arrangement worked well for both farmer and consumer but at great financial strain to the exchequer. And it was for this reason that the Government opted to liberalize the grain sub-sector and let NCPB to operate as a commercial entity, even while at the same time performing the Social Function on behalf of the Government. Through liberalization the market was to be entrusted with the role of self-regulation through the forces of demand and supply.

However, this goal of involving the private sector in the grain market, alongside NCPB, for improved food security and offloading the huge public financial burden became stillborn.

Unpredictable production levels resulted in unstable markets for the main food crops as private traders took advantage to cash in on bumper harvest crop by suppressing intake prices below production cost. During times of shortage they disposed of it at exorbitant prices, thereby exerting undue pressure on consumers.

This defeated the overall intention underlying Government’s decision on liberalization and posed major challenges on its responsibility of ensuring food security for the country.

To address these emergency situations, the Government has had to resort to intervention measures, including financing of maize imports, mainly through the NCPB.

This has seen the Board revert to its earlier role of facilitating Government’s social functions of maintaining Strategic Grain Reserves and distribution of Famine Relief food.

Food security has been a thorny issue in Kenya over the past few years, mainly due to erratic weather conditions and rapid population increase. Even though it is always said agriculture is the backbone of Kenya’s economy.

A big per cent age of Kenyan agriculture relies on rainwater for farming. Over most of the country, there are two major rainy seasons. The short rains and the long rains, which are experienced at different times in different parts of the country.

Whenever there are sufficient rains, bountiful harvests are recorded all over the country, and so the question of storage comes in. Grain must receive proper post-harvest handling to keep it in proper quality both for human consumption and as animal feed.
The grain must be precleaned to remove any broken kernels that tend to increase the surface area for grain metabolic activities, which result in increased temperatures and moisture; and also rotten and discoloured kernels that promote fast growth of mould. Drying grain to the necessary moisture content will make it keep for long during storage so as to avoid the growth of moulds- some of which produce poisonous substances such as aflatoxin. Fumigation and the general pest control activities should also be carried out to disinfest grain from all common storage insect pests such as weevils, the Larger Grain Borer (LGB), rodents and moths.

How does the government make sure that there is enough food that is fit for consumption for every Kenyan and even exportation?

This is where the National Cereals and Produce Board comes in as an important player its role in food security.

NCPB
The National Cereals and Produce Board is a strategic government parastatal that deals with grain handling and marketing.

Over the years, NCPB has grown into a large corporate body through an evolutionary process from the Maize and Produce Board (1939-1943), to Maize Marketing and Produce Board (1967-1979), and to its current status as National Cereals and Produce Board following the amalgamation of Maize Marketing and Produce Board with the former Wheat Board of Kenya.

Initially, NCPB was a marketing monopoly of all types of produce ranging from maize, wheat and millets to bixa annatto, cashew nuts, rice and sorghum.

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In the process of being a producer marketing monopoly, the body invested in an extensive storage network throughout the country in order to meet its food distribution and food security role.

Throughout its existence, NCPB has progressively expanded its storage network to reach 110 depots/silos located in both cereal surplus-producing regions and deficit regions of the country with a cumulative storage capacity of 20.5 million by 90-kg bags. With these facilities, the Board is able to purchase and store large amounts of grain from productive regions, which is then distributed to the main consumption areas like Nairobi and other deficit areas like parts of Western, Nyanza and Eastern provinces.

Following the liberation of the grain market in 1993, the Board embarked on a restructuring process that would make it a commercial viable entity, able to operate alongside the private sector and remain sustainable in the market through full exploitation of its strategic advantages:

• Ability to import and export staple cereals to meet local demand or widen market outlets to farmers during times of shortages or huge surplus production respectively.
• Availability of institutional capacity and expertise to handle, store, maintain and market food commodities.
• Availability of capacity to spontaneously respond to the government’s policy decisions with regard to market intervention measures.
• Capacity to offer technical services and education to farmers, millers and other interested parties.
• Capacity to handle and distribute food aid commodities.
• Capacity to handle, process, mill and market rice other grains.

With the elaborate net-work of conventional stores and silos, NCPB provides unrivalled handling, storage and preservation facilities ideal for both farm produce and a variety of other products from the food industry and other sectors of the economy.

While pursuing its goal of commercialisation and retaining its purchase, storage and sale of grains that include maize, beans, rice, green grams, cowpeas, bulrush millet, sorghum, finger millet and finger millet flour, the Board has also embarked on a process of widening its business base. In this regard, it has ventured into sale of farm inputs, mainly fertilisers, certified seeds and storage pesticides for use during the planting season.

During the long-rains planting season of the year 2002, NCPB launched the distribution of certified seeds and fertilisers on agency arrangement with the main suppliers. The programme successfully stabilised fertiliser prices, enabling farmers to access inputs free from adulteration, and at predictable prices.

The programme has continued since then following the success of the exercise that resulted from the fact that our distribution network spreads out into farming areas, where farmers were able to plant on time throughout the high potential areas. The Board’s selling prices were negotiated with the suppliers, making it more affordable to farmers.

The Board then revisited its earlier intention of importing fertiliser directly to further stabilise prices for the benefit of farmers. This was considered achievable because the Board would be procuring, transporting and distributing the commodities through its depots without the risk of price inflation normally associated with multiple handling by middlemen.

In helping to stabilise the fertiliser prices, the Board plays its role in contributing to the country’s food security situation.