Tobacco production and food security in Bungoma District, Kenya

Tobacco growing which was introduced into Kenya 30 years ago has increased tremendously over the years such that today,it is grown by about 20,000 small scale farmers on over 15,000 hectares of land.The Kenyan Government, as in some tobacco growing countries, treasures the tobacco firms because of the huge amounts of revenues generated by the firms through taxes remitted. When tobacco was introduced in Malakisi division of Bungoma district, cotton had been the main cash crop though the returns from the crop were not good. The farmers welcomed the new cash crop with the hope that it would be a major source of family income and that it would alleviate poverty in the area. Many farmers took up the growing of tobacco with the expectation that the income got from the crop would be sufficient to meet all their financial needs including buying food for the household.However the growing of the crop has made the farmers poorer than how they had been before the crop was introduced.The growing of the crop has made most of the farmers food insecure.