NAIROBI, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Kenya has secured 7.6 billion shillings (123 million U.S. dollars) grant as emergency funding to alleviate the current food crisis which has hit the east African nation due to the rise in global food prices.

    Agriculture Minister William Ruto told journalists in Nairobi on Monday that 1.9 billion shillings(30.6 million dollars) from Food and Agricultural Organization, 5.4 billion shillings (87 million dollars) from the World Food Program (WFP) and 317 million shillings (5.1 million dollars) from the International Fund for Agriculture Development would go towards purchasing fertilizer.

    Ruto said the funds would also be used for the development of new seed varieties and the revival of the stalled school feeding program and would e released in the next three months.

    "This will provide ready market to our products that will contribute to a green revolution in our country as well as give an impetus to market development," he told journalists in Nairobi.

    The minister disclosed that another agreement would be signed later in the year with the WFP that stipulates how any surplus grain would be sold to the organization, noting that this was a powerful incentive for agricultural production.

    Meanwhile, the WFP will fund the school-feeding program to the tune of 5.1 billion shillings (82 million dollars).

    Ruto said the government would budget a further 5 billion shillings (81 million dollars) to import 3 million bags (90kg/bag)of maize, and another 2 billion shillings (32 million dollars) for the purchase of fertilizers.

    Ruto, however, noted that funding and importation of food are not the solution to food insecurity.

    He said the government is focusing on irrigation in arid areas, which constitute 80 percent of Kenya's acreage to stop the over-reliance on Rift Valley as the breadbasket of the country.