Globally, agricultural production systems are under pressure to meet multiple challenges: to sustain or increase production from the same area of land and reduce negative impacts on the environment amid uncertainties resulting from climate change. As farming systems adapt to meet these challenges, one of agriculture’s greatest assets in meeting...

This video highlights how a pastoralist community in Mandera, Kenya applied knowledge gained in a pastoral field school to improve their livelihood through fodder production.

The documentary shows how three smallholder farmers in Tanzania and Kenya escaped poverty, hunger and diminishing yields through learning organic farming practises. This documentary was made for IFOAM by Maweni Farm in collaboration with the national organic agriculture movements in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.

In this chapter we review some national statistics that will help characterize the capacity of the population to adapt to climate change and describe Kenya’s land base and current agricultural context. Then we show results of crop models that incorporate climate projections from recent global models. Finally, we incorporate those...

The second of three books in IFPRI's climate change in Africa series, East African Agriculture and Climate Change: A Comprehensive Analysis examines the food security threats facing 10 of the countries that make up east and central Africa - Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda...

Family farming is the basis for modern food provision in Africa, today and tomorrow. Its multifunctionality and sustainable productive potential is supported by extensive research evidence. Family farming and small-scale food production generates food and well-being for the majority of the population and the wealth of the region, and conserves...

The potential benefit of indigenous chicken (Gallus domesticus) production is still under exploited in Kenya despite the efforts by different stakeholders to mainstream this production system as a pathway to rural development. The production system is often characterized by low input-low output productivity and low commercialization of the enterprise. This...

Steven Kiranga Gichanga is a family farmer in Mugaari, a village in Kenya. He was trained in goat rearing but could not afford a goat to get started. He was also trained in bee keeping but could not afford a bee hive either. After a community reflection forum in 2012,...

Stimulated by work pioneered in Bangladesh, the paper outlines a conceptual framework for using poultry as a tool in poverty alleviation. There is now evidence from several coun- tries that small poultry enterprises with adequate institutional support targeting the poorest rural women and their families can help them take the...

Over the last fifty years food production per person in Africa has grown disappointingly slowly at little more than 10%. The population of Africa is growing rapidly at an average annual rate of 2.5% and is expected to almost double by 2050 to close to two billion people. Chronic hunger...

Supported by Sida, the World Agroforestry centre (ICRAF) and the African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) launched the Conservation Agriculture with Trees (CAWT) pilot project in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. The countries were selected as among those in Africa where there was strong evidence of CA up-scaling taking place. The...

Because developing good programs requires good data, SNV has conducted research to further explore the linkages between smallholder farmers (SHF) and government-led school feeding programs. This report takes a closer look at these linkages in several parts of three countries in Sub-Saharan Africa where SNV is implementing pilots for the...

Local leafy vegetables have long been an important part of people's diets in Africa - nutritious, affordable and adapted to local growing conditions and cultural traditions. They are cheap, readily affordable and rich in different micro-nutrients and are therefore crucial for the food and nutrition security of poor families in...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of extension services in enhancing effectiveness of outgrowers’ credit system in Kisumu County, Kenya. The study specifically sought to determine whether public and private extension services play a significant role in enhancing effectiveness of out-growers’ credit system among smallholder sugarcane...

The paper looks at the problems faced by rural African women. It focuses on their role in food production, impediments they face in land tenure, issues they confront in connection to climate change, the global economic system and violent conflicts.

Strong rural organizations like producer groups and cooperatives are crucial to hunger and poverty reduction. They allow small producers toplay a greater role in meeting growing food demand on local, national and international markets, while improving their own economic, social and political opportunities. This thinking connects a series of case...

Per capita food production in Africa has been declining over the last two decades, contrary to global trends due to soil fertility decline. The study sought to determine factors that influence adoption and utilization of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) technologies by smallholder farmers in central Kenya. Two hundred and...

Food production in Kenya is closely related to smallholder agricultural production. Paradoxically, many smallholders suffer extended periods of food crises. This underscores the importance of understanding the multiple pathways smallholders use to deal with food insecurity. Participatory action research, using both qualitative and quantitative methods was undertaken to identify adaptation...

Smallholder farmers’ access to markets has traditionally been constrained by lack of market information. The desire to strengthen farmer access to market has seen the emergence of a number of projects that employ ICT tools in the provision of market information. This study assesses the conditioners of the use of...

Over 70% of the domesticated birds in Kenya are indigenous chicken (IC) providing meat and table eggs. They are frequently raised through the free range, backyard production system. Small flock sizes are characteristic of this production system and often, sales are mainly at the farmgate. Although IC production possesses enormous...