By Robert Kibet
KITUI, Kenya , Oct 17 2024 – Kenyan farmers have faced a turbulent year, caught between legislative changes and a devastating scandal. While the country’s Mung Bean Bill, aiming to regulate the lucrative mung bean industry, has moved to mediation, farmers are battling the fallout from the widespread distribution of counterfeit fertilizers that have jeopardized their crop yields and livelihoods.

The Mung Bean Bill is a response to the crop’s rising prominence in Kenya. Known locally as “Ndengu,” mung beans have gained traction due to their drought-resistant nature and high demand in both local and international markets. This legislation seeks to create a framework for stabilizing prices, standardizing quality, and ensuring fair trade practices. However, many farmers fear the bill will add to existing bureaucratic hurdles without addressing core issues such as the recent fertilizer scandal.

Among those affected is Lucy Mutuku, a smallholder farmer from Kibwezi, a semi-arid region in Eastern Kenya. With a weathered face and hands hardened by years of labor, Mutuku stands in her field, explaining her decision to venture into mung bean farming. “It was a diversification strategy,” she says, her voice carrying the resolve of someone who has seen many harvests. “Mung beans are drought-tolerant and using organic manure helps enhance soil fertility. Even with erratic rains, they provide a reliable source of protein for my family and surplus for the market.”

Mutuku’s journey took a dark turn when she became one of the many victims of the government’s subsidized fertilizer program. “Buying synthetic fertilizer has always been expensive,” she recounts, frustration lining her face. “When I heard about the government’s fair-priced option, I bought it quickly. But then I realized it was fake. My crops failed, and it’s disheartening because farming is my only income.”

The scandal’s impact has been widespread, with the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) reporting that counterfeit fertilizers accounted for nearly 20 percent of agricultural inputs this season. This affected various crops, including mung beans, maize, and vegetables, devastating small-scale farmers who are now caught in a cycle of debt and uncertainty.

In Makueni County, Beatrice Mwangi, another farmer, invested heavily in mung beans, hoping for a lucrative harvest. With her eyes reflecting a mixture of hope and despair, she recalls the moment she realized the extent of the damage. “I was expecting a bumper harvest,” she says, “but my crops hardly grew. When the agricultural office confirmed the fertilizer was fake, it was a blow.” Now, like many others, she struggles to repay loans taken to purchase inputs, facing financial strain that threatens her family’s future.

Dominic Mbithi in Kitui, one of Kenya’s semi-arid lands, chose mung beans due to their low water requirements. Mbithi, a wiry man in his forties, employs zai pits, shallow basins that capture and conserve water. “This technique helps me maximize water use,” he says, crouching beside one of his pits, examining the soil. Despite the challenges, he’s managed to increase his yields and even engages in value addition by producing mung bean flour, which he sells to local schools and health centers.

Over in Taita Taveta, Joyce Mwikali transitioned from maize and sorghum to mung beans. A determined woman in her fifties, she walks through her sandy-soiled farm with a pride that belies the struggles she faces.

“Mung beans have a shorter growing season and thrive here,” she explains. Through rotational farming and compost use, Mwikali has managed to reduce her dependency on rain-fed agriculture. She now participates in a cooperative that helps with market access, ensuring better prices for her produce.

Michael Muriuki, farming on the eastern slopes of Mt. Kenya in Meru, utilizes drip irrigation to maintain a consistent water supply for his mung beans during dry spells. With a thoughtful demeanor, he shares how this extra income has enabled him to invest in better equipment. “Drip irrigation and integrated pest management have been game-changers for me,” he says, his gaze fixed on the neatly lined plants.

In Tharaka-Nithi, Lydia Njeri began growing mung beans to combat climate change’s effects on traditional crops. Using early planting and certified seeds, she has improved her household’s nutrition and found a reliable market for her surplus produce.

“Selling to processors who make mung bean products like noodles and flour gives me a steady income,” she notes, her expression softening as she describes the positive changes in her community.

Even though the National Assembly rejected the Mung Bill 2022, at the second reading stage proponents argue it could offer a regulatory framework to protect farmers from fraudulent agricultural inputs.

However, critics like Dr. John Mburu, an agricultural economist, caution that legislation alone is insufficient. “We need a comprehensive approach,” he emphasizes, “including stricter enforcement against counterfeit products, farmer education, and better quality control infrastructure.”

The bill will now proceed to mediation, according to the National Assembly.

The farmers’ stories underscore the deep-seated vulnerabilities within Kenya’s agricultural sector. While the Mung Bean Bill may offer a glimmer of hope, immediate action is required to strengthen regulatory oversight, enhance farmer awareness, and ensure the authenticity of agricultural inputs. The future of these farmers—and the nation’s food security—depends on it.

As the debate continues, the voices of farmers like Mutuku, Mwangi, Mbithi, Mwikali, Muriuki, and Njeri must guide the development of policies that truly support and protect Kenya’s agricultural community. Only then can such crises be prevented in the future.

The 2024 Mung Bean Congress, held in Bangkok, Thailand, brought together 110 stakeholders from 23 countries. This gathering was a platform for sharing current research and discussing future priorities, including studies supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

Dr. Eri Huttner, ACIAR’s Research Program Manager for crops, emphasized the significant potential impact of their investment in mung bean improvement research on partner countries, highlighting the crop’s growing global importance.

As the debate continues, the voices of the most affected—the farmers—mustn’t be overlooked. Their firsthand experiences and insights should be at the forefront of developing policies that truly support and protect Kenya’s agricultural community. This approach is essential to prevent such crises from reoccurring.

Back in 2013, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) spearheaded this initiative, which significantly increased public awareness of pulses’ nutritional and environmental advantages while emphasizing their function in sustainable food production.

Building on the success of this celebration and recognizing the potential of pulses to achieve the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Burkina Faso proposed the observance of World Pulse Day. Consequently, in 2019, the General Assembly proclaimed February 10 as World Pulse Day, further underscoring the vital role pulses play in global food security and sustainability.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Joyce Chimbi
KENYA, Oct 17 2024 – The impact of climate change continues to devastate economies worldwide, creating a pressing need for all countries to significantly increase international climate finance. To drive critical action towards reduced climate risks and sustainable economic growth calls for expanded access to affordable, predictable finance at scale.

In November 2024, the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF, along with COP29, present critical opportunities to boost climate finance, set a new global goal for its delivery, and build momentum for the necessary commitments. Against this backdrop, the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development program hosted Simon Stiell on October 17, 2024 for a virtual event to discuss how to meet the global climate finance challenge. 

“Let’s start by asking: Where are we now on climate finance? In the past decade, we’ve seen some real progress. Over a trillion dollars was invested in climate action last year globally. Up from a few hundred billion a decade ago.  According to the OECD, in 2022 developed countries provided and mobilized more than USD 100 billion in climate finance to developing countries,” Stiell, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), explained.

“We got this far because first-movers and smart governments—who had the means—seized their chance. They saw the opportunity and grabbed it. But relative to where we need to be, this is nowhere near enough.  This year we’ve seen hundreds of billions of dollars of damage to countries rich and poor.”

Stiell was speaking alongside Vice President for Global Economy and Development Brahima Coulibaly, Senior Fellow Amar Bhattacharya and non resident Senior Fellow Vera Songwe at Brookings Institution in a high-level conversation to discuss the challenges of addressing global climate risks and the current opportunities to substantially increase climate finance across the developing world.

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat Simon Stiell speaks on climate finance at the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development Program. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Coulibaly stated that in the coming years, rising global temperatures will lead to more full-point and severe weather events, the degradation of the world’s oceans and other ecosystems, and instability in access to food and drinking water, among others. Emphasizing that climate action is “an aggregate global public good, for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions achieved by mitigation in one country, does not impede on the amounts affecting any other country, and it is the emissions everywhere that determine the global emissions.”

Bhattacharya spoke about the global stock take—a measure of progress towards the Paris Agreement—showing that the world is falling behind due to underinvesting in the low-carbon economy, climate resilience, and natural capital. And that this is especially so for emerging markets and developing countries.

Adding that in the last four to five years for instance, less than 5 percent of the increment in clean energy investment has been in emerging markets and developing countries other than China.  Overall, “90 percent of the world’s nature and biodiversity assets are in the developing world; 80 percent of the spending is in the rich world,” he said.

Songwe spoke about the intrinsic link between growth and climate and the need for a climate transformation that creates opportunities and opens up new sectors, cautioning that growing brown can only lead to a disaster.

Disaster is already unfolding as Stiell’s own home island of Carriacou took a direct hit from Hurricane Beryl only a few months ago. As supply chains become obstructed and broken, inflation has severely affected even those who have avoided direct damages. Stressing that international climate finance must grow up, step up, and scale up to meet this moment.

“We simply can’t afford a world of clean energy haves and have-nots. In a two-speed global transition, pretty soon everyone loses.  We can only prevent the climate crisis from decimating all economies—including the largest—if every nation has the means to slash greenhouse gas pollution and boost climate resilience. So, we know trillions more are needed,” he emphasized.

He said that Multilateral Development Banks will be at the heart of this transition and that this week, the World Bank announced more concessional lending for climate and the IMF is looking at ways to incorporate climate action and risks right across their work.

“So many countries are facing debt crises that amount to fiscal straightjackets, making it near impossible to invest in climate action. At the annuals, we must see further signals that the World Bank and IMF are committed to ensuring developing countries have funds and fiscal space for climate action and investment, not devastating debts and sky-high costs of capital,” he expounded.

Adding that while debt relief and introducing “more climate-related debt clauses are a start. So is replenishing the World Bank’s International Development Association. And it’s not just up to development banks. The G20 countries are their largest shareholders and must fund them properly and demand more, including wider reforms to the international financial architecture, while also working to find new and innovative sources of finance.”

Less than four weeks to COP29, Stiell said that public finance must be at the core of the new finance goal.  That as much of this finance as possible needs to be in the form of grants or concessions and must be made more accessible to those who need it most. And the urgent need to make climate cash count, and wherever possible, leveraging more private finance and sending signals to financial markets that green is where the gains are.

He noted that the vital business of who pays and how much can be agreed in Baku, “but we are not going there to renegotiate the Paris Agreement.  It’s also important we put in place mechanisms to track and ensure that promised funds are delivered.  More work also has to be done to rapidly ramp up funding for adaptation and get international carbon markets working for everyone.  We must fund a new generation of national climate plans.”

He further spoke about the pressing need to protect the progress that was made at COP28 and convert the pledges in the UAE Consensus—to triple renewable energy, double energy efficiency, boost adaptation and transition away from fossil fuels—into real-world, real-economy results.  And said it was imperative that the Loss and Damage Fund was working fully, dispersing money to those who need it most.

“This is a moment of profound fracture between nations and within them. In times like these, there is a temptation to turn inward. If we go down this path, it will soon be game-over in the world’s climate fight.  So let’s instead choose the game-changer path ahead—the one that recognizes that bigger and better climate finance is entirely in every nation’s interests and can deliver results everywhere,” Stiell emphasized.

“Let’s choose the path that focuses on solutions, ensuring the massive benefits of bolder climate action—stronger growth, more jobs, better health, secure and affordable clean energy—are within all nations’ reach. That is the only pathway to every nation surviving and thriving.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Reports on COP29 written by IPS’ climate justice fellows is supported by the Open Society Foundations.

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