Climate-smart agriculture: Lessons from Kenya, for the World

The world’s climate is changing, and is projected to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The impact of climate change will be particularly felt in agriculture, as rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and increased pests and diseases pose new and bigger risks to the global food system. Simply put, climate change will make food security and poverty reduction even more challenging in the future.

Until recently, agriculture has tended to be on the sidelines of discussions concerning human-induced climate change.

There is also a hunger for practical, implementable knowledge on CSA. This is why Agrotech Plus Ltd is working to showcasing success stories from the Rural smallholder farmers across Africa. The stories shall indicate how countries have combated drought (Morocco), raised productivity through climate-smart irrigation (Tanzania), and improved coffee farming through public-private partnership (Uganda).

We believe these initiatives will boost the livelihoods and resilience of smallholder farmers and also cutting emissions.

The establishment of climate-smart Agriculture villages for our farmers will provide more food and better nutrition options to families in Nyando, West Kenya — 81% of whom routinely experience one to two hunger months every year. This will also facilitate the use of shade trees in to help farmers boost their Horticultural crops — shade trees can reduce the temperature in the farm growing areas by 2°C–5°C and avert crop losses, which could exceed more than US$100 million per year without adaptation.

This is just a start. Agrotech Plus is doing more to foster the adoption of CSA around Africa through the Agrotech Plus Climate Business Plan. The StartUp advocates for CSA, works with stakeholders to foster adoption of CSA polices, and giving the right tools programs to scale up CSA technologies. The StartUp’s experiences in and lessons from Africa could have impact beyond the region, and be instructive for countries around the world. As more governments commit to a more sustainable, climate-smart food system, there is plenty to learn from Kenya’s climate smart villages and more, as climate smart agriculture continues to gain momentum in the region.