Resources

Ruth Chepchirchir is a Senior Agricultural Economist and Research Consultant with over 15 years of experience in food security, agricultural policy, and development research across sub-Saharan Africa. She has led and contributed to multi-country research and evaluation programmes, with expertise in impact evaluation, market systems, gender analysis, and climate resilience. Her work focuses on generating evidence to inform policy and strengthen smallholder livelihoods. She has collaborated with international organizations, governments, and research institutions, and has extensive experience managing large-scale datasets and delivering policy-relevant insights.

As a consultant for the Food Security Portal, Ruth Chepchirchir authored the monthly series of commodity price reports for Kenya.

The report analyzes the evolution of weekly maize and rice prices in four East African countries - Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda - for April to September 2022.

The report presents price trends and movements for key food commodities, including dry beans, dry maize, rice, wheat, and Irish potatoes, for June to September 2022, in selected major regions and markets in Kenya.

Since peaking earlier this year, international food prices have returned to levels last seen prior to the Ukraine war. However, prices of most foodstuffs remain high and continue to be under upward pressure from a range of factors, including low stock-to-use ratios for some commodities, high energy and fertilizer costs, poor weather in several key producing countries, and risks associated to the unresolved conflict in Ukraine. With a majority of countries experiencing food price increases between 10 and 30 percent over the previous year, domestic food price inflation is particularly worrisome, especially for the poor who spend a higher share of their disposable income on food.