Establishing a robust and sustainable national Food Balance Sheets system : Kenya experience

A.D. Orang’O and P.P.M. Mwaniki

L'Insee et la statistique publique
Dernière mise à jour le : 21/07/2025
A.D. Orang’O and P.P.M. Mwaniki

Résumé

Food Balance Sheet (FBS) is a critical framework for sustainably, regularly and cost‑effectively generating relevant food security data. However, establishing such a robust and sustainable system is challenging for a country. Indeed, the required basic data (on crops/livestock/fisheries production, international trade, consumption, etc.) is derived from different sources, which, in addition, use different data collection methods such as surveys or administrative records. Given that such data are interrelated, it is important to combine them to reconcile and validate them by placing them within the country’s overall commodity supply and utilisation picture.

The most appropriate model is the Food Balance Sheets compilation framework, which combines all aspects of a country’s supply and utilisation to reconcile and validate food and agricultural data.

In 2005, Kenya established a robust and sustainable national FBS compilation system within the existing statistical legal framework, using the required international methodological standards. This initiative resulted in producing annual timely FBS of good quality. Thereafter, in 2018, with African Development Bank support, the system was enhanced and upgraded to consider the latest developments in this area, particularly by using newly developed, cost‑effective tools and methods. Using the new tool, the FBS shows that overall Daily Energy Supply (DES) has been relatively stable, at slightly above 2,100 kilocalories per person per day. The Self‑Sufficiency Ratio (SSR) and Import Dependency Ratio (IDR) have recorded mixed performance with the highest SSR (90.1%) being recorded in 2023 and the lowest IDR (13.4%) being recorded in 2021.

Article (pdf, 668 Ko )

Orang’O, A.D., Mwaniki, P.P.M. (2025). Establishing a robust and sustainable national Food Balance Sheets system : Kenya experience. Statéco, 119.