REVITALIZING DRYLAND FOOD SECURITY THROUGH POLICY RE-ORIENTATION IN KENYA

The drylands of Kenya that comprise of Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) make up about 80% of the total land area and are largely inhabited by agro and nomadic pastoralists. Despite the large area, their contribution to Gross Domestic Product is about 5%, mainly through livestock husbandry and dryland farming. These areas are characterized by among others; thermal stress, soil moisture deficiency, insecurity, competition over natural wherewithal and other low development indices. In addition, their physical infrastructure including roads, housing, health, education and telecommunication is wanting. The result is basically unimpressive development indicators for example poor social service provisioning. Despite the foregoing challenges, the productivity of drylands is far below its potential and resource exploitation especially by the local population is largely done from a pedestal of ignorance, leading to untold environmental degradation. One reason for the foregoing state of affairs is inappropriate planning and poor policy execution. Flowing from the foregoing, this study analyses the past dryland food policies and related blueprints, their achievements and pitfalls and finally argues for a paradigm shift in policy development and execution as part of the panacea for revitalizing dryland food security. Article visualizations