The government has embarked on reforms to boost the production of maize, the country’s staple food.

“The National Food Reserve will utilise the warehouse receipt system and voucher incentive programme for market stabilisation through commodity exchange,” the document says.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya told the National Assembly last week that the thousands of bags of maize in government stores are contaminated with aflatoxin and unsafe for human and animal consumption.

Last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta formed a task force to review the performance of the maize industry with focus on policy, regulation, declining production, high cost of production, high post-harvest losses, unpredictable and unstructured markets as well as cheap imports.

Another report prepared by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and Kenya Agricultural Research and Livestock Organisation (Kalro) recommends a number of technological interventions, as well as policy and regulatory changes to boost productivity.