Nairobi — Kenya is yet to recover from the negative effects of the financial crisis that affected most world economies this year.

President Kibaki said even though the country recorded little signs of recovery, it was very much still reeling from the shocks of the global economic instability.

And he pointed out reduced remittances from the diaspora and a severe drop in the earnings from tourism and agriculture exports as proof.

"As a consequence, there has been a marked drop in employment and productivity levels, thus adversely affecting the vulnerable members of the society."

President Kibaki said it was for this reason Kenya came up with the economic stimulus package, which he hoped will add 'additional impetus into the economy.'

"Much of this effort is in the area of agriculture with a view to developing mechanisms of responding to climate change," he said.

He spoke during the sixth global consortium of higher education and research for agriculture conference.

Statistics indicate that the country earned Sh36.6 billion from the tourism sector between January and September this year.

According to the Ministry of Tourism figures released last month, this was still much lower than what was recorded during the same period in 2007, when revenues stood at Sh44.6 billion.

President Kibaki said the negative effects of climate change had triggered serious challenges to agricultural productivity.

It led to massive losses to both crop and livestock farmers leading to massive food shortages and very poor performance of agricultural related industries, he explained.

"There's now a sigh of relief as we are hopeful of receiving adequate rains during this current short rains period," he said.

The President suggested that to adequately address food shortages in the region, farmers must adopt modern methods of food production including the use of improved and drought resistant varieties.

Agricultural researchers, he added, should ensure that they come up with 'home grown solutions' to this problem so that Kenyans 'are not only free from hunger but are also empowered enough to embark on wealth creation.'

President Kibaki expressed disappointment that despite the fact that huge amounts of money was being devoted to research, very few of their findings reached the farmers, livestock keepers and small scale businessmen.

'I challenge universities and other research institutions to find ways of translating their research into innovations applicable to the end users so that they can make a difference in their day to day economic and social activities," he said.

"The answer to food security lies within the realms of the lead researchers and their ability to cascade their findings for implementation by governments, farmers and business persons," added the President.

With regards to energy production, the President said the search for alternative energy sources such as geothermal, solar and was still on.

This he said, was in line with their ambition to increase electricity supply in rural areas from four to 12 percent by 2012, a move expected to boost agricultural production.

Higher Education Assistant minister Kilemi Mwiria, who also spoke at the event, said farmers should take advantage of growing traditional crops like cassava, arrow roots amongst others if the country is to become food secure.

The theme of the three-day conference is Food, Health and Energy; Challenges for Sustainable Agriculture.