Kenya sees launch of high-tech anti-hunger effort

By Andrew Wasike and Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI, Kenya

Scientists, government leaders, and dozens of others gathered in Kenya on Monday to witness cutting-edge technology aimed at stopping malnutrition in Africa by clamping down on hunger.

The new technology launched by the Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), called Nutrition Early Warning System (NEWS), will help governments, aid groups, and farmers in early detection of famines, droughts, and floods among other calamities and help lessen their effects, especially those that lead to food shortages.

CIAT says that one in four people in Sub-Saharan Africa is malnourished. According to the Kenyan government, the current drought affecting 11 million people in East Africa and 3 million in Kenya has left more than 38 percent of people living in the worst-affected regions in Kenya acutely malnourished.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of the official launch, CIAT’S Regional Director for Africa Dr. Debisi Araba emphasized that the NEWS system could have softened the blow of the ongoing drought in East Africa, which has so far claimed many lives.

“We can now track how our food systems work, we will be able to identify trends and risk way ahead before they happen, thus averting the loss of many lives. The NEWS system is designed to handle complex multiple metrics and separate tracking to measure malnutrition, which governments find the data too much to absorb,” Araba said.

Charles Sunkuli, Kenya’s permanent agriculture secretary, told the gathering that his country will use the new system to prevent calamities such as the one that has hit Kenya.

“We look forward to using the new innovation to be better prepared to deal with future calamities, and I am sure many African countries will follow suit,” Sunkuli added.

CIAT is a research organization committed to sustainable food production which focuses on improving rural livelihoods in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. It produces new new techniques to make agriculture more sustainable and profitable.

By Andrew Wasike and Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI, Kenya

Scientists, government leaders, and dozens of others gathered in Kenya on Monday to witness cutting-edge technology aimed at stopping malnutrition in Africa by clamping down on hunger.

Charles Sunkuli, Kenya’s permanent agriculture secretary, told the gathering that his country will use the new system to prevent calamities such as the one that has hit Kenya.

“We look forward to using the new innovation to be better prepared to deal with future calamities, and I am sure many African countries will follow suit,” Sunkuli added.