{"id":9279,"date":"2020-04-08T06:26:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T06:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=9279"},"modified":"2021-12-01T12:44:17","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:44:17","slug":"greenpeace-africa-urges-munya-to-prioritise-farmers-amid-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/press\/9279\/greenpeace-africa-urges-munya-to-prioritise-farmers-amid-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenpeace Africa Urges Munya to Prioritise Farmers Amid Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Nairobi, 8 April 2020 &#8211;&nbsp; The Agriculture Cabinet Secretary, Peter Munya recently allowed processors to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nation.co.ke\/news\/Munya-leaves-maize-farmers-out-in-the-cold\/1056-5513700-6h85erz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">import four million bags of maize<\/a> to beat a looming deficit.&nbsp; He further stated that the government does not intend to buy maize from local farmers citing corruption as one of the reasons.<\/p>\n\n<p>Responding to these developments, Claire Nasike, Greenpeace Africa\u2019s Food Campaigner has said:<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cIt is very surprising for the CS to say that the government will not buy maize from Kenyan farmers. While we commend the government&#8217;s efforts in dealing with the global pandemic, we urge the Ministry of Agriculture to support smallholder farmers to achieve food security during this crisis.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cFood security is at the top of the President&#8217;s big four agenda; the CS should ensure that smallholder farmers who produce 80 percent of the food consumed in Kenya are prioritised.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cCS Munya needs to find a way to curb corruption within the agencies such as the Ministry of Agriculture and National Cereals and Produce Board and move with speed to purchase maize from farmers.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cLocal farmers are at the forefront of cushioning Kenyans against hunger in the wake of COVID-19. Buying grains from them will enable them to produce more food that is required at this time. Smallholder farmers continue to be the most underserved in Kenya. With proper investments and planning, Kenya\u2019s agricultural sector has the potential to be self-sustainable\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Media contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>Hellen Dena, Communications Officer, <a href=\"mailto:hdena@greenpeace.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hdena@greenpeace.org<\/a>, +254 717 104 144<\/p>\n\t\t\t<section\n\t\t\tclass=\"boxout post-3968 \"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-action=\"Image\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"cover-card-overlay\"\n\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/act\/resilient-farming\/\" \n\t\t\t><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsrc=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2020\/01\/6da09614-gp0stp8oj_web_size.jpg\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsrcset=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2020\/01\/6da09614-gp0stp8oj_web_size-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2020\/01\/6da09614-gp0stp8oj_web_size-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2020\/01\/6da09614-gp0stp8oj_web_size-510x340.jpg 510w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2020\/01\/6da09614-gp0stp8oj_web_size.jpg 799w\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsizes=\"(min-width: 1000px) 358px, (min-width: 780px) 313px, 88px\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\talt=\"\" title=\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\/>\n            \t\t\t<div class=\"boxout-content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"boxout-heading medium\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-action=\"Title\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/act\/resilient-farming\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tResilient Farming\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t                                    <a\n                        class=\"btn btn-primary\"\n                        data-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n                        data-ga-action=\"Call to Action\"\n                        data-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n                        href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/act\/resilient-farming\/\"\n                        \n                    >\n                        Get Involved\n                    <\/a>\n                \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nairobi, 8 April 2020 &#8211;&nbsp; The Agriculture Cabinet Secretary, Peter Munya recently allowed processors to import four million bags of maize to beat a looming deficit.&nbsp; He further stated that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":9280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[27,37,64],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-9279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-protecttheenvironment","tag-farming","tag-food","tag-kenya","p4-page-type-press"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50049,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9279\/revisions\/50049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9279"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=9279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}