CGA and AGRA Officialy Launch Phase II of The Regenerative Agriculture Program – A Scale Out

Makueni County: 27th June 2022 – Cereal Growers Association (CGA) and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) officially launch Phase II of the Building Regenerative, Sustainable and Profitable Smallholder Agricultural Transformative Systems in Eastern Kenya Project.

The project is funded by IKEA foundation through Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). It is being implemented by Cereal Growers Association (CGA) and Farm Africa (FA) in 4 counties of Tharaka Nithi, Embu, Kitui and Makueni Counties. Cereal Growers Association (CGA) is implementing the project in Kitui and Makueni Counties while Farm Africa is implementing in Tharaka Nithi and Embu Counties. The project spans from May 15, 2022 to October 15, 2025.

The overall goal of the project is to contribute to the development of food and farming systems within a sustainable framework by employing regenerative, context-specific innovations and models, that appreciate local diversity to attaining climate-resilience and food security for smallholder farmers in Kenya.

The project aims to achieve three key outcomes outlined below:

• Outcome 1: Context-specific, private sector business models for the development of circular, regenerative agriculture developed, validated, and shared
• Outcome 2: The productivity of farms and landscapes enhanced by employing appropriate mix of regenerative agriculture and input delivery systems.
• Outcome 3: The capacity of local and national governments in developing and/or enforcing policies in adoption and promotion of RA practices enhanced.

The project seeks to address five key challenges that small holder farmers in Makueni and Kitui counties are facing, namely: Adverse effects of climate change, land degradation, declining soil fertility, limited access to extension services and weak input and output market linkages which have resulted in low agricultural productivity. In both counties, the effects of climate change at the smallholder level have resulted in fragile semi-arid agro-ecological zones affecting existing farming activities in these ASAL counties that are dependent on rain-fed agriculture. These challenges hindering agricultural transformation in Makueni and Kitui counties require the smallholder farmers to adopt sustainable farming solutions such as regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, conservation agriculture and integrated soil fertility management technologies that incorporate the use of organic inputs and judicious use of site and crop-specific blended fertilizers.

CGA will promote the following sustainable farming practices in the two target counties: rehabilitation of degraded water catchments; good soil management practices to avert landslides and floods; forest cover through afforestation, reafforestation and agroforestry; species diversification through planting of indigenous and exotic species; restoration of degraded soils and conservation of soil biodiversity through integrated soil fertility management (ISFM).

CGA will work with the village-based advisors (VBAs) to establish agroforestry nurseries with fodder tree crops e.g., Calliandra calothyrsus, Leucaena Spp. and Moringa oleifera trees which can supplement animal feed and Gliricidia sepium to support biomass production for green manure. Through kitchen gardening, CGA will target increased fruit and vegetable production and consumption at the household level.  Given the existing policy infrastructure in both counties to support improved extension services in the agriculture sector and majorly in Makueni county through the County Extension Volunteer programme (CEV), this proposed second phase of the Regenerative Agriculture (RA) project will seek to strengthen last mile delivery of extension services and enhance sustainability of extension service provision through the village-based Advisor (VBA) model.

This project “Building Regenerative, Sustainable and Profitable Smallholder Agricultural Transformative Systems in Kenya” provides an opportunity for AGRA and CGA to deepen its learning agenda in sustainable Regenerative Agriculture (RA) models and provide evidence to the wider sector for adoption at scale. The regenerative agriculture practices are in line with key agroecological principles as well as provide value adds for policy and institutional strengthening for sustainable production, farming, and consumption.

The project is an extension of a pilot project that was implemented in Embu and Makueni Counties between July 2020 and September 2021. It is therefore a scale out to Kitui and Tharaka Nithi counties and deep dive to the Makueni and Embu counties and it borrows to a greater extend on the lessons learnt during the pilot phase. The Kitui County targeted beneficiaries are 20, 000 farmers distributed in 4 Sub Counties, while in Makueni County, the project targets 30,000 smallholder farmers spread in 5 Sub Counties as shown in table (1) below.

Table 1: Project Implementation Areas

County	Sub-County	No. of Wards	Name of Ward
Makueni	Kaiti	4	Kee; Ilima; Kilungu; and Ukia
	Makueni	7	Wote/Nziu; Mavindini; Kathonzweni; Muvau/Kikumini; Kitise/Kithuki; Zakika; and Mbitini
	Kibwezi West	6	Emali/Mulala; Nguu/Masumba; Makindu; Nguumo, Kikumbulyu North; and Kikumbulyu South
	Kibwezi East	3	Thange; Masongaleni; and Nzambani Ivingoni
	Kilome	2	Kasikeu and Kiima Kiu
Kitui	Kitui Rural	3	Yatta Kwa Vonza; Kanyangi; and Mbitini
	Kitui East	3	Nzambani; Sombe/Mwitika; and Mutitu/Kaliku
	Kitui West	4	Matinyani; Kaui; Kwa Mutonga; and Mutonguni
	Kitui South	4	Athi; Ikutha; Ikanga/Kyatune; and Mutha

The project aligns with the Agriculture Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (2019-2029 and the specific value chains in each ecological zone are specified below:

Table 2: Promoted Value Chains per Sub County in Kitui and Makueni Counties

County	Sub-County	Cereals Produced	Pulses Produced
Makueni	Makueni	Maize (Upper areas); Sorghum (Kitise)	Beans (HIB), Pigeon peas, Cow peas, and green grams
	Kaiti	Maize	Beans (HI), Pigeon peas, Cow peas, and green grams
	Kibwezi West	Sorghum	Pigeon peas, Cow peas, and green grams
	Kibwezi East	Sorghum	Pigeon peas, Cow peas, and green grams
	Kilome	Sorghum	Beans (HIB), Pigeon peas, Cow peas, and green grams
Kitui	Kitui Rural	Sorghum	Pigeon peas, Cow peas, and green grams
	Kitui East	Sorghum	Pigeon peas, Cow peas, and green grams
	Kitui West	Sorghum	Pigeon peas, Cow peas, and green grams
	Kitui South	Sorghum	Pigeon peas, Cow peas, and green grams

Through this project, CGA will reach 50,000 smallholder farmers directly through a network of 300 VBAs linked to over 50 private sector actors will participate in enhance knowledge, awareness, and adoption of these practices at the farm level. At the end of the project, it is expected that 70% of the targeted beneficiaries will adopt RA practices and over 6,000MT of pulses and 4,000MT of cereals will be produced, aggregated, and marketed (total value of produce sold € 4,018,634).

Through private sector linkages, over €1 million worth of inputs will be accessed by farmers. CGA expects 20-25% yield increases at the farm level owing to the adoption of RA practices. From a gender equity and youth inclusion view, CGA expects that at least 60% and 35% of women and youth will actively participate as VBAs.