This excerpt is from a CNBC Africa opinion piece published September 28. Uhuru Kenyatta is President of Kenya and a member of the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. Read the full piece here.
Food from the ocean, or blue foods, are essential for the future food and nutritional security of the Kenyan people. Sustainably increasing consumption and production of blue foods is a critical component of our country’s development strategy.
Blue foods also contribute to the Strategic Food Reserve programme in Kenya. Through this programme we seek to scale up the capacity and capability of our small-scale fishers to produce sustainably, add value to, and market fish and fisheries products for food, income and jobs.
These efforts demonstrate an important solution to two of the world’s greatest challenges: feeding the world’s growing population and eliminating poverty. Globally, blue foods could play a much larger role in improving nutrition and food security, and creating economic opportunities — but only if we transform our relationship with the ocean and the small-scale fishers whose livelihoods depend on it.
“In Kenya, we recognize that small-scale fishers must be at the heart of any sustainable ocean plan. We should empower them to be stewards of our marine ecosystems…A healthy ocean and blue foods are indispensable to building a stronger, more sustainable, and equitable food system.”