Wealthy urbanites hungry for fertile land deal blow to food production

What you need to know:

  • According to the study, about 53 per cent of the land owned by these middle class Kenyans is not under cultivation. Those in this class are defined as medium-scale farmers who own between five and 100 acres of land.
  • The only difference is that those who acquired their farms through a farm-led strategy are the ones who have greater proportion of their land under cultivation.
  • In the past 30 years, the researchers say, those who were in-charge of the Ministry of Agriculture portfolio have been predominantly from Rift Valley. They have designed food production and marketing policies around the medium-scale farmers who control farming in the region.

Middle class Kenyans are buying fertile agricultural land and holding it for speculative purposes instead of farming it, putting food security in danger.

Even those who are farming are not using their land to its full potential, a new study shows.

The high appetite for land by these Kenyans is pushing prices through the roof, and making it very difficult for small-scale farmers to expand their farming.

These are some of the issues raised by Prof Milu Muyanga, a Kenyan, and Prof Thomas Jayne, both lecturers at the Michigan State University, in their study launched on Thursday at Boma Hotel in Nairobi.

According to the study, about 53 per cent of the land owned by these middle class Kenyans is not under cultivation. Those in this class are defined as medium-scale farmers who own between five and 100 acres of land.

The survey was carried out in eight counties of Nakuru, Uasin Gishu, Trans Nzoia, Kakamega, Bungoma, Machakos, Kajiado and Narok.

“Few of the medium-scale farmers in our sample cultivated most of their land. Many had hired relatives as managers who look after their operations,” says Prof Jayne of the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.

FETCH HIGH PRICES

Of the 300 who were interviewed during the study, about two thirds said their land is held to fetch high market prices in future.

Sixty per cent of them have acquired their land through savings or other earnings. The other 40 per cent got the land using their farm proceeds or as inheritance from parents. Prof Jayne describes the latter as “relatively privileged rural-born men who were then able to acquire large land holdings as they started out their careers.”

The only difference is that those who acquired their farms through a farm-led strategy are the ones who have greater proportion of their land under cultivation.

Referred to by the study as the wealthy elite, these middle-scale farmers are said to buy land and only enter into farming in their mid-life years, when they are about to retire or have retired from active employment.

According to Prof Jayne and Prof Muyanga, the rapid rise in the number of farms in the five to 100-hectare category represents a relatively hidden but revolutionary change in farm structure — reflecting increased investment in land by relatively wealthy urban-based individuals.”

The researchers warn that the country is focusing on large-scale farmers, when the real problem is the middle class Kenyans who are now the leading owners of agricultural land.

In the past couple of years, the number of Kenyans acquiring between five and 100 acres has been increasing rapidly. Currently, the middle-scale farmers own 0.84 million hectares of land compared to 0.64 million hectares owned by combined foreign and domestic large-scale farmers.

LAND ACQUISITION

A significant percentage of those in the middle-scale are either former or current civil servants. “A majority of farmers sampled followed a particular pattern: they were predominantly men, their primary jobs were in the non-farm sector, and they were mostly employed in the public sector,” says Jayne.

About 57 per cent of them were formerly or currently employed in the public sector; 83 per cent had held other jobs other than farming; and they started farming with about 23 hectares. Majority of them acquired their land between the 1990s and 2000s.

“Many of these farmers lived, and continue to live, in urban areas. They are relatively well-educated,” says Prof Muyanga.

Mr Odenda Lumumba, the Coordinator of Kenya Land Alliance, says some of the former or current civil servants acquired their land using stolen public funds.

But Prof Muyanga also hypothesizes that the purchases of land in the 1990s might be linked to structural adjustment programmes that saw many civil servants retrenched. Those who got the popular golden handshake might have gone into farming.

This bulge in middle-scale farmers has serious implications if not managed well. While Prof Jayne and Prof Muyanga agree that the middle-scale farmers have high possibility of increasing food productivity, they are fast to add that: “Continued rapid alienation of land to medium- and large-scale investors is likely to exacerbate localised land scarcity, restrict the potential of smallholder-led development, and put unrealistic pressure on the non-farm economy to absorb Africa’s rapidly rising labour force.”

Prof Jayne in particular warns of a major political problem if this issue is not tackled now. “In the next 10 years, there is going to be unprecedented number of people in rural areas entering into the labour market. If agriculture is not viable to absorb them, they will be a major political problem to Kenya and other African governments.”

SHRINKING AGRICULTURAL LAND

Compared to other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the study found Kenya’s agricultural land is shrinking and it will require the government to provide alternative jobs for young people.

The other implication is as the wealthy Kenyans acquire agricultural land, the small-holder farmers are finding it difficult to find land to buy or if it is available, the cost is exorbitant. Unable to acquire land, they have resorted to further subdivision to accommodate more family members and other farming activities.

According to the study, between 1994 and 2006, the proportion of Kenya’s farms smaller than one hectare rose from 44.8 to 67.2 per cent.
This means to break into the commercialised medium-scale farming, small-scale farmers have to use other sources of income than proceeds from the farm.

Equally worrying is the government’s policies around agricultural production, which are modelled around these middle-scale and large-scale farmers— posing a great danger to food security.

Prof Muyanga thinks that the country cannot achieve its goal on poverty reduction when the small farmers are not supported by enabling policies. He says most of the agricultural subsidies on inputs benefit medium-scale farmers, and not small-scale farmers who need them most.

PIPE DREAM

He further cautions that food security will remain a pipe dream in Kenya if the country continues to pursue agricultural policies that are not pro-poor.

“What is more worrying is that the focus of the subsidies and purchase of produce is mainly in one region of the country, the Rift Valley,” he said.

In the past 30 years, the researchers say, those who were in-charge of the Ministry of Agriculture portfolio have been predominantly from Rift Valley. They have designed food production and marketing policies around the medium-scale farmers who control farming in the region.

This is to the detriment of the small-scale farmers in other parts of the country.

The problem is not all medium-scale farmers are interested in farming, with those farming using just a little proportion of their land for that purpose.

But acquisition of land by the wealthy elite is not a bad thing if the land is put to full use. In its conclusion, their report says:

“Trends in the performance of medium-scale farms are hence likely to have a major impact on overall agricultural performance in these countries (Kenya, Ghana, and Zambia), and this impact is likely to become stronger over time.”