By Christopher Mutisya
With Kenya being a food deficit country importing up to 20% of its annual cereal requirements, the improvement of cereal and pulse production remains constrained by climate change effects arising from poor adoption of improved seed varieties, inefficient water and soil management, inefficient fertilizer use, lack of conservation agriculture practices, inadequate crop diversification coupled with poor access to agromet information.
According to the Stockholm Environment Institute (2009), if climate change in Kenya is not addressed effectively, economic costs of its impacts are estimated to be 3% of GDP per year by 2030 and possibly 5% by 2050. The agricultural sector which contributes to over 25% of the country’s annual GDP is particularly affected by changing climatic conditions. Nearly 98% of crop production is rain-fed. Thus the increased incidence of droughts and unreliable rainfall patterns are expected to affect the sector significantly.
In light of this, Cereal Growers Association (CGA) with support from the Australian High Commission through the Direct Aid Program has embarked on creating awareness and building the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers in Kitui, Machakos, Kakamega and Bungoma Counties on climate change adaption and mitigation. This training is focused on introducing Climate smart Agriculture (CSA) as an approach to farming, whereby existing agricultural systems are adapted to be more sustainable, more productive and more responsive to local environmental conditions (land, weather and climate).
The main objective of this training is to build the capacity of farmers in the region, more so the vulnerable yet viable smallholder farmers to sustain themselves and to prosper in the face of a changing climate and harsh weather conditions. In order to reach out to smallholder farmers, several methodologies are being utilized. These include the mobilization of agricultural stakeholders in the four counties around climate smart agriculture actions, capacity building of county extension officers, training of lead (progressive) farmers who will serve as CSA champions beyond the training, and capacity building of smallholder farmers on the awareness and adoption of CSA practices for improved food security and increased household incomes. In addition, the establishment of crop demonstration plots coupled with farmer field days will be carried out to enhance CSA technology transfer among smallholder farmers.
To date, CSA stakeholders in the counties have been mapped out and commitments relating to various partnerships agreed upon. These stakeholders include experts in conservation agriculture (Participatory Approaches for Integrated Development), suppliers of drought tolerant crop varieties (Dryland Seed Company and Kenya Agriculture Livestock & Research Organization), service providers of soil and water management technologies (Crop Nutrition Services), experts in integrated pest management (Food & Agriculture Organization) and proponents of agroforestry (Kenya Forestry Research Institute and Vi Agroforestry). Other CSA practices to be promoted include mulching, cover crops, crop rotation and small-scale irrigation.
In addition, CGA field officers in collaboration with the respective county extension officers have established eight crop demonstration plots in the four counties. In Lower Eastern Counties (Kitui and Machakos), the demo plots will promote the adoption of drought tolerant crops such as sorghum, green grams and cow peas as opposed to maize whose production has been on the decline due to frequent rain failures in the region. In Western Kenya (Bungoma and Kakamega), the crop demo plots will focus on maize and beans varieties that are suitable for these counties.
At the same time, CGA engaged a climate smart agriculture expert from the Climate Unit in the State Department of Crop Development (Ministry of Agriculture & Irrigation) to train all CGA field agronomists and county extension officers through training of trainers’ mode on the CSA approach and its application in the field. The trainees will then train lead (progress) farmers at the county level who will then be the CSA champions going forward.
The next phase of activities will involve direct awareness creation and training of smallholder farmers on the CSA methodologies in the above paragraphs. This will be carried out by CGA field agronomists, county extension officers with follow-ups made by lead farmers (CSA champions). Once the crop demo plots are ready, a farmer field day will be held in each of the four counties. In addition, two farmer exchange visits will be carried out to promote farmer learning on soil and water management as well as conservation agriculture practices.
Ultimately, it is expected that the initiative will build climate change resilience among 2,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya arising from the adoption of CSA technologies in the four counties. While the initial farmer outreach can be considered a drop in the ocean, CGA is actively seeking strategic partnerships with local and international organizations in order to scale up CSA interventions to a larger population of farmers. More important, scaling up CSA interventions through the Direct Aid Program (Australian High Commission) will be critical in enhancing CSA ability to expand to more counties. In the final analysis, the ability of smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change is key to achieving Sustainable Development Goals especially SDG 1 – Ending Poverty and SDG 2- Zero Hunger. Without food security, income security will remain a pipe dream and poverty a cruel reality.