Prioritizing climate-smart agriculture practices in Western Kenya.

A climate-smart agriculture (CSA) prioritization exercise in Western Kenya was carried out as part of the activities in the CIAT-led research project on ‘Climatesmart soil protection and rehabilitation in Western Kenya’, funded by GIZ. This project aims to encourage sustainable approaches to promote soil protection and rehabilitation of degraded soil in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, India and Kenya. It also supports policy development for soil rehabilitation, soil information, and extension systems. A two-day regional workshop with 45 participants was held in Western Kenya; participants were local agricultural experts, representatives of agriculture related local NGOs and farmers from Bungoma, Kakamega and Siaya counties. Six farmers were invited from each of the five farm typologies (that had previously been identified by this project): i) smallscale mixed subsistence; ii) medium-scale mixed with commercial horticulture; iii) medium-scale mixed with commercial dairy; iv) medium-scale mixed with commercial cereal; and v) large-scale commercial farming. Separate focus group discussions were held with farmers and local experts, respectively to explore the differences between stakeholders. The workshop modules included: validation of the typologies in the three counties; CSA indicator selection; development of a short list of agricultural practices appropriate for each farm type; and climatesmartness assessment based on the three CSA pillars (i.e. production, adaptation and mitigation). Practices were prioritized using pairwise ranking and information on the potential benefits of practices by stakeholder was also documented. This study highlights the value of evaluating which practices were preferred in a local context and highlights the climate smartness of these practices based on desired objectives by local experts and farmers. Efforts to increase soil restoration and rehabilitation in Western Kenya should target the prioritized practices in each farm type to achieve high adoption rates and attain CSA goals. In addition, barriers highlighted by the stakeholders should be considered. Assessing practices against the CSA pillars helps to ensure that prioritized practices can also provide win–win or co-benefits to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Implementing this study was a way of testing the CSA prioritization framework developed by CIAT in 2014, which led to the development of a revised CSA prioritization process

Evaluation of farm-level impacts of soil fertility management strategies in maize-bean farming systems in Uganda and Tanzania

We conducted an ex ante evaluation of soil fertility management strategies on soil organic matter (SOM), nitrogen balance, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and profitability under three important scenarios: (1) inorganic fertilizers, (2) organic manure, and (3) combined organic manure and inorganic fertilizers. Focus group discussions and household surveys were used to collect data in Rakai, Uganda, and Lushoto, Tanzania. We assessed impact for three farm types (small scale, medium scale, and large scale) using a bioeconomic model: FarmDESIGN. Our main findings are as follows. First, whereas in Lushoto the combined use of organic manure and inorganic fertilizers contributed the most to SOM relative to the baseline for all farm types, in Rakai the same scenario had greater impacts for only medium- and large-scale farms. For small-scale farms, improvement in SOM mostly came from the use of inorganic fertilizers. Second, in both countries, nitrogen balance increased across all scenarios and farm types. Third, the increase in SOM and nitrogen balance was accompanied by an increase in GHG emissions, especially for scenarios with manure or combining manure and inorganic fertilizers. Fourth, impacts were mixed in terms of profitability. In Lushoto, Tanzania, the smallscale farm has the lowest operating profit, while the large-scale farm has the highest. In Rakai, Uganda, gross margins from crops contributed the largest share to farm profitability. Our findings not only suggest increased soil fertility with the adoption of improved management strategies but also highlight potential trade-offs in terms of increased emissions and reduced profitability for some farm types. Taking into account both synergies and trade-offs when promoting soil fertility management strategies might yield successful efforts

Cost and benefit analysis for climate-smart soil practices in Western Kenya.

Most of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including Kenya, depend heavily on agriculture for income and food security. Any effort aiming to sustain and improve the productivity in agriculture is, therefore, an important step towards improving the livelihoods of many households. Soils are integral to the function of food and fibre production. In addition, they have a large potential for sequestering carbon and mitigating greenhouse gases. The adoption of climate-smart soil practices can improve the soil-nitrogen cycle, enhance yield, soil fertility, crop productivity, improve soil biodiversity, and reduce soil erosion and water pollution. This could, in turn, help to boost food production, income and household ability to adapt. However, a review of published literature indicates a lack of in-depth empirical analysis on the costs and benefits associated with implementing these climate-smart soil (CSS) practices. Therefore, there is a gap about the cost effectiveness of adopting these practices – a key ingredient to the development of appropriate policies. The results presented in this paper attempt to bridge this knowledge gap, using an ex-ante cost and benefit analysis (CBA) to assess the cost-effectiveness of a few selected CSS practices in three counties in Western Kenya. The study’s main goal is to assess costs and benefits of selected CSS practices as a step toward understanding whether it is beneficial or not – both from private and social points of view – for farmers who have implemented them

Invest in climate-smart soil and land health

Better soil health can increase agricultural productivity. Restoration activities can build on-farm resilience and contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Land and soil health surveys can improve crop modeling predictions under various climate scenarios and guide more targeted interventions. Currently, most assessments of land and soil health do not consider the social, ecological, and biophysical constraints, or acknowledge the variations in the landscape. The Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF) assesses multiple indicators at the same geo-referenced location across landscapes. It provides a biophysical baseline at landscape level and a monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the processes of land degradation and the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures over time (Figure 3). With the LDSF, vulnerable areas that may require more investment in terms of land restoration can be identified early on and priorities determined

Design climate-smart agricultural interventions to be gender inclusive

Research suggests that gender equity is a critical factor in the adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices. If gender is not explicitly considered in climate-related interventions, the adoption of climate-resilient practices is unlikely to reach scale. Climate-resilient interventions must go beyond targeting women to focus on the underlying causes of gender inequality within communities. Involving men for women’s empowerment is critical. Gender norms cannot change in isolation. Men must see the value of women’s participation and control over benefits and resources. Gender-inclusive design should be included at each stage of the project cycle

Support farmer-to-farmer and community-wide social learning

Research suggests that farmer-to-farmer learning can be up to six times more effective in spreading knowledge of CSA practices than in areas where it is not carried out. Understanding the wider context and requirements for social learning is key. Peer learning is an effective way to disseminate CSA knowledge based on trust, relying on social networks, with learning and social multiplier effects. Together with collective action, it can lead to effective adoption of CSA practices. Such farmer-to-farmer learning can usefully reinforce – and be reinforced by – extension and other change agents. For it to work, farmer-to-farmer learning requires performance incentives and rewards

Know what drives the adoption of climate-smart agriculture across different scales

Recognizing successful climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices is not enough for them to be adopted at scale. At many sites, government or development-led interventions to promote CSA practices face low adoption rates or are not adopted at all. Data shows that CSA adoption depends on drivers and constraints beyond the CSA practices. Blanket adoption of a specific intervention should never be assumed: the adoption of CSA practices is usually patchy because of many conditions. Some drivers of adoption, such as market access or climate variability, are universally positive across countries and regions, creating a positive environment for adoption. Other drivers are important in site-specific contexts. Investing in understanding and communicating drivers and the conditions under which specific interventions are likely to thrive could increase adoption rates and overall return on investments

Monitor climate-smart agricultural interventions with a real-time participatory tool

Climate-smart agricultural (CSA) interventions often require “fine-tuning” i.e. feedback from multiple stakeholders e.g. farmers, extension agents, NGO workers, and policy implementers on their relevance in a given context. Getting essential feedback to ensure projects are on track in a timely way, especially for fast-moving CSA interventions with busy implementers, can often be a challenge. Smart monitoring combines ICT tools with the “5Q” approach to ask five questions of various implementers at different stages of the project. Rapid assessment results from answers to the “5Q” questions combined with ICT-driven geospatial data provide quick insights, which can be key to fine-tuning the trajectory to success. Such an approach not only provides a real-time monitoring tool, it is also cost effective: one 5Q survey round in a CSA project consulted nearly 1,000 farmers in just 45 minutes by automated phone calls at an operational cost of just US$300

Target the pathways to scale out climate-smart agricultural technologies to farming communities

The process of getting climate-smart agricultural (CSA) interventions and practices to farmers is just as important as the interventions and practices. Given the complex systems in which CSA is implemented and the various CSA practices and technologies, there is no one-size-fits-all scaling pathway – so far Best-fit climate-smart agricultural scaling approaches are guided by the biophysical, socioeconomic and institutional context and attributes of the CSA technology