Kenya’s agricultural sector is increasingly facing challenges due to climate change, with prolonged droughts, erratic rainfall, and shifting growing seasons threatening its sustainability and resilience. Agriculture remains the backbone of the country’s economy, contributing around 20% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employing more than 40% of the population. The sector plays a crucial role in ensuring food security and economic development, especially in rural areas. However, the rising impacts of climate risks have called for innovative solutions to safeguard its future.
In response to these challenges, Kenya has implemented several initiatives to promote climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and improve sector resilience. The Agriculture Sector Transformation Growth Strategy (ASTGS), Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), and the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) are pivotal frameworks in addressing the country’s agricultural needs. These strategies aim to enhance sustainability by adopting practices that increase productivity while mitigating environmental impacts. Additionally, tools such as the Africa Agriculture Adaptation Atlas (AAAA) are integral in supporting climate adaptation efforts. This platform provides geospatial tools and localized insights to enhance decision-making, enabling better responses to climate risks and optimization of agricultural value chains.
The AAAA integrates critical data on climate hazards, land use, and socio-economic factors, allowing stakeholders to make informed decisions. However, to maximize its effectiveness, it requires localized datasets tailored to specific regions and agricultural conditions in Kenya. The tool can help farmers, government officials, and policymakers by offering data-driven insights to guide climate adaptation strategies and improve agricultural productivity.
A key effort in strengthening climate adaptation efforts was the county-level landscape validation exercise funded by the Gates Foundation. This initiative was led by the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) in partnership with the Sustainable Agriculture Foundation (SAF-A). The validation exercise covered over 35 counties, including Machakos, Nyeri, Murang’a, Kilifi, Busia, Kisii, Makueni, Taita Taveta, Uasin Gichu, Baringo, and Turkana. The objective was to assess the agricultural practices in these regions, particularly focusing on CSA initiatives and to improve understanding of how the AAAA could be utilized for better decision-making.
During the validation sessions, stakeholders, including county officials, farmers, and community leaders, discussed ongoing CSA efforts such as seed distribution, livestock breeding, aquaculture, agro-processing, and conservation agriculture. These initiatives are key to reducing the impacts of climate change and improving agricultural productivity. The stakeholders were also introduced to the AAAA platform, which demonstrated its ability to analyze climate risks, estimate economic returns on adaptation investments, and prioritize livestock investments. This helped in bridging the gap between scientific research and practical applications in agriculture.
The validation exercise highlighted both opportunities and challenges within Kenya’s agricultural sector. One of the significant challenges identified was gender disparity. Women make up approximately 75% of the agricultural labor force but face barriers related to land ownership, limited access to credit, and climate-induced vulnerabilities. Despite efforts to address these issues, such as the Women Enterprise Fund and various NGO programs, land ownership and the impacts of climate change remain major obstacles. Women have been particularly active in goat and poultry farming, while also contributing significantly to community-driven initiatives focused on water conservation, agroforestry, and cooperatives.
The validation exercise also identified recommendations to enhance the impact of the AAAA. These included capacity-building initiatives through targeted training programs for county officials to improve data interpretation and decision-making. Additionally, it was suggested that the platform be customized to include county-specific datasets and Agro-Ecological Zone (AEZ) classifications to improve relevance and accuracy. Establishing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) laboratories would enable real-time monitoring of agricultural conditions, supporting better policy formulation. Updating outdated value chain data was also emphasized to reflect current trends and challenges in the agricultural sector.
In conclusion, with proper customization and support, the Africa Agriculture Adaptation Atlas has the potential to be a transformative tool in advancing sustainable agriculture, building resilience, and driving economic growth across Kenya. By improving data-driven decision-making and promoting climate-smart innovations, the platform can play a crucial role in securing the future of Kenya’s agricultural sector in the face of a changing climate.
