Prices for rice farmed in Kenya increases recently

(MENAFN) Francis Ndege is unsure if his clients in the biggest slum in Africa are still able to purchase rice from him.

Because of higher fertilizer costs and a prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa that has decreased production, prices for rice farmed in Kenya have recently increased. The shortage had been replaced by cheap rice imported from India, which fed several of the hundreds of thousands of citizens living in Nairobi's Kibera slum on fewer than USD2 per day.

However, that is altering. Since June, the cost of a 25-kilogram (55-pound) bag of rice has increased by 15 percent. Since India, the world's top rice exporter by a wide margin, announced in July that it would halt some rice shipments, wholesalers have not yet received new supplies.

The world's most populous country is making an effort to regulate domestic pricing in advance of a crucial election year, but it has left a huge vacuum of about 9.5 million metric tons (10.4 tons) of rice that citizens across the world require, or almost a 20 percent of worldwide exports.

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