The participants from the individual National Kolping Organizations who were assembled there reported on their experiences with rising food prices and spoke about the consequences this had on the members of the Kolping Society but also for the population in general. The reason for the rising food prices was seen in the growth of the world’s population, but also the rising costs for fertilizers and for energy and the competition in planting agricultural products between foodstuffs and raw materials for the production of bio energy. The technical seminar attracted wide interest with the participants, but also with the public, a fact that also became clear by the presence of the Kenyan Minister for Agriculture, Mr. James Orengo. The participants of the seminar all agreed that also the Kolping Society in Africa is challenged to cooperate in finding a solution to the problems related to the rise in prices and that this could be done by increasing the agricultural production. In the process the Kolping Society is counting on an increase in the possibilities for production of the small peasants which would lead to an increase of the amount of agricultural products as well as offering possibilities for processing these products and thus enables the creation of additional jobs.
