The arid and semi-arid areas (ASALs) of Kenya cover nearly 84 percent of the national land and thus present an enormous potential contribution to national agricultural production as well as basic food and income for farmers residing in these areas. About three in every ten Kenyan children aged below two years are stunted. According to the Kenya Demographic Health Survey conducted in 2014, Kitui county and West Pokot county had the highest stunting rates nationally at almost 46 percent. This is against a national average stunting rate of 26 percent.

There have been multiple past projects in Kitui county that improved food security and nutrition, including through the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding, growth monitoring, immunization, complementary feeding and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Increasing Smallholder Productivity and Profitability (ISPP) project, implemented between September 2016 and March 2020, was designed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to combine nutrition education with rural livelihood support. This approach aimed at developing the capacities of smallholder farmers in agricultural production, water management, and farming as a business. Furthermore, it facilitated the improvement of nutrition outcomes of targeted household members in the semi-arid counties of Kitui, Machakos, Makueni, Taita-Taveta, and Tharaka-Nithi.  The project had a specific component on Trials of Improved Practices (TIPs), focused on improving infant and young child feeding practices.

SOME KEY TAKEAWAYS

• On value chains: The project implemented a comprehensive gender-responsive market development approach where women groups were linked to buyers and financial service providers. Agricultural productivity was enhanced through access and efficient management of water for irrigation, good agricultural practices and climate-resilient agricultural practices, with the objective of increasing production of 11 nutrient-rich commodities (bananas, pigeon peas, cow peas, beans and pulses, tomatoes, kales, watermelon, green maize and sorghum). Support to the transition of smallholder farmers from subsistence to commercial farming was done through the promotion of agribusiness, improvement of post-production management and support to market linkages and trade for the 11 targeted commodity value chains. The intervention showed that integration of an agribusiness component into a food production and nutrition project plays a key role in increasing farmers’ incomes. This is a potential pathway for improving nutrition outcomes.