Kenya AE Hub 4

Lead Organization:

Manor House Agricultural Centre (MHAC)

Partner Organizations:

IDEMS International; INNODEMS; PELUM Kenya; RFRN; CBE (Collaborative Biodiversity and Environment); FIPS (Farm Input Promotions Africa); SOFDI (Sustainable Organic Farming and Development Initiative); Trans Nzoia County Ministries of Agriculture and Environment; Hub CoP Member Organizations: AgrISS, CREPP, DIG, Drylands FRN, GBIAK, KALRO MLP, Kenya Cranes and Wetlands Conservation, Practical Action, RODI, Tembea Youth, Trees for the Future

Community of Practice:

East & Southern Africa

Countries:

Kenya

Duration:

11/2024—11/2027

Overview:

The Kenya Agroecology Hub has worked to address gaps uncovered during our project’s inception year scoping study, which examined the state of smallholder farmers and their service providers in 5 western Kenya counties. We convened separate focus group discussions with male and female farmers in each county. Subsequently, in the same counties, we conducted more than sixty key informant interviews with staff from agricultural and environmental governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs). 

Farmers candidly discussed their agricultural and livelihood challenges, highlighting issues of low agricultural productivity and a lack of income earning potential from agriculture. Farmers attributed the former to degraded soils, seemingly uncontrollable pests and diseases and increasingly erratic weather. They saw the high cost of inputs and middlemen as barriers to income generation. Issues related to gender inequalities were raised by women, who felt they bore a disproportionate share of the household burdens but were shut out from decision making and access to the income, even what they’d earned through their own efforts.   In all counties, farmers told us they lacked access to information that could help them meet their challenges, and that they could not seek help from government extension staff because they could not afford to provide money for transport and lunch, as the demand-driven approach requires. 

Across the five counties we noted various contrasts between the local government agriculture departments and NGOs and CBOs. Governments were focused on conventional industrial agriculture strategies, emphasizing agrochemical subsidies, which were reaching only a small fraction of county farmers. They encouraged farmers to specialize to commercialize. NGOs and CBOs were filling a service gap and were offering farmers a diverse and accessible range of options. For example, almost all NGOs and CBOs taught farmers how to utilize their locally available resources to make composts and liquid fertilizers and stressed the relationship between soil and plant health. NGOs/CBOs also almost universally promoted a risk-reducing crop diversification strategy and emphasized use of more resilient drought-tolerant crops. However, we also noted that most NGOs/CBOs were (1) focused on kitchen gardening, (2) recommending pest control practices that have not been validated by research, (3) using a technology-transfer, training by teaching or demo approach, which does not seem to lead to farmer adoption of more complex interventions, and (4) working with relatively few farmer groups.

Over the past 5 years the AE Hub has built up 5 FRNs that have demonstrated very visible success by using AE concepts and practices and the FRN approach to improve farm performance and address specific agriculture and livelihood challenges. In the process, our collaborators have learned how to deploy more horizontal approaches for interaction with farmers and the power of bringing both local and scientific knowledge to bear on problem solving. We have also helped spur Manor House Agricultural Centre’s (MHAC) revival, both as a farmer-oriented Agroecology training Centre par excellence and as a Centre where youth (most of whom are from FRN communities), gain deeper knowledge and skills in Agroecology through our apprenticeship program.

Grant Aims:

The project focuses on scaling agroecological practices in Kenya by improving policy, training, and farmer support. It aims to enhance the knowledge and practices of local stakeholders, promote a coordinated approach to agroecology, and integrate both scientific and local knowledge. This will lead to sustainable improvements in agricultural productivity, biodiversity, and soil and water conservation.

Outputs and Outcomes:

Scaling Up

  • Intended Outcomes:
    1. Agroecology policies and programs implemented in Trans Nzoia County.
  • Outputs:
    1. Establishment of a county-level multistakeholder platform on agroecology.
    2. Validation of a framework for county-level agroecology policy development.
    3. Enhanced agroecological knowledge of county officials and stakeholders.
    4. Improved AE policy formulation through knowledge-sharing with other AE Hubs.

Scaling Out

  • Intended Outcomes:
    1. Local FRN members mitigate agricultural challenges using AE practices.
    2. MHAC staff, students, and local collaborators co-create solutions with farmers.
    3. Strong links created between MHAC’s research, training, and outreach programs.
    4. Ecosystem services strengthened by enhanced biodiversity and soil and water conservation.
  • Outputs:
    1. MHAC students and staff support active FRNs in Saboti and Kiminini sub-counties.
    2. MHAC and county agriculture/environment staff collaborate to improve smallholder development.
    3. Increased agency and power of local FRN farmers.
    4. Educational materials on landscape-level degradation impacts on ecosystem services.

Scaling Deep

  • Intended Outcomes:
    1. Partners’ efforts are more impactful due to adapting outreach approaches based on research.
    2. MHAC graduates empowered as valuable community resources for AE knowledge.
    3. Local leaders and farmers have more AE expertise.
  • Outputs:
    1. Farmer scorecards for evaluating AE uptake and impacts.
    2. Qualitative data from FGDs on outreach approach trade-offs.
    3. Report analyzing and synthesizing research outcomes.

Partnership & Collaboration
The project will leverage a strong network of core and collaborating partners with expertise in AE research, education, and outreach. These include organizations involved in capacity building, technical support, and community engagement. Notable partners include IDEMS International (technical backstopping), INNODEMS (data management), PELUM Kenya (scaling up), and SOFDI (supporting farmer training). Additionally, local stakeholders like county agriculture and environment ministries, as well as educational institutions, are key collaborators.

Core Collaborators:

  • CBE (Collaborative Biodiversity and Environment): Focus on research and development for using human waste and other sustainability projects.
  • FIPS (Farm Input Promotions Africa): Supporting soil health-related FRNs.
  • SOFDI: Major partner in scaling deep research and supporting MHAC student apprenticeship programs.
  • Trans Nzoia County Ministries: Collaborative efforts with local government officials to implement FRNs.