Kwale: Smallholder farmers in Kwale County are slowly adapting to climate-smart agriculture practices to improve productivity, enhance resilience to climate variability, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and store carbon. In Kikoneni ward of Lungalunga sub-county, small-scale farmers John Mutuku, Befronia Kingethu, and Paul Muteti have taken to using climate-resilient crop varieties, improving water management, and adopting conservation agriculture techniques to mitigate climate-induced agriculture disruptions.
According to Kenya News Agency, the farmers are embracing climate-smart agriculture that encompasses farming practices such as agroforestry systems, drought-tolerant crop varieties, and techniques like crop diversification, conservation farming, crop rotation, and intercropping. Climate-smart agriculture is an integrated approach to managing landscapes such as cropland and livestock that addresses the twin challenges of food security and climate change.
Confronted with the reality of erratic rainfall patterns and low yields, farmers across the coastal county are adopting climate-smart agriculture practices in the hope of increasing crop yields and farm income. The transformative smart agriculture farming is gaining traction in the coastal county with the help of the Global Evergreening Alliance’s Restore Africa Programme, World Vision, Self Help Africa, Just Dig It, and Africa Harvest, among others.
A pivotal aspect of the restoration programme is the incorporation of agroforestry, which merges agriculture and forestry practices to bolster farm productivity and sustainability. Implementation of the Restore Africa Programme (RESAf), the world’s largest farmer-led, nature-based restoration initiative, is spearheaded in Kenya by World Vision and a consortium of development partners.
Farmers under World Vision’s Green Farm Project have termed the integrated approaches to agriculture as a ‘beacon of hope’ and a ‘step in the right direction’ that benefits the farmers, consumers, and the planet. John Mutuku, who has been farming for over 30 years, says local farmers have learned practices like cover cropping and crop rotation, helping improve soil health, retain moisture, and reduce soil erosion.
Befronia Kingethu notes that by utilizing ‘climate and crop information,’ local farmers know when to plant and which crop varieties to plant, thus increasing agricultural productivity. She emphasizes that farmers are moving away from unsustainable agricultural practices that can lead to high greenhouse gas emissions, soil erosion, and reduced soil fertility.
Paul Muteti, a subsistence maize farmer, has dedicated a section of his farm to growing native trees as a climate change mitigation measure and earns income by selling carbon credits, which represent the amount of carbon dioxide stored. The targeted small-scale farmers, who bear a disproportionate share of the climate crisis, receive seeds of indigenous, exotic, and fruit trees to help them restore their degraded lands.
Natural Resource Management Coordinator at World Vision, Elizabeth Nyagoha, states that the conservation programme is working closely with farmers in Kwale, Elgeyo Marakwet, Kilifi, Migori, and Narok counties. The environmental conservation project is in its infancy stage but is slowly setting the stage for long-term collaborations and transformative climate actions in the agricultural and land use sectors.
Nyagoha explains that the smart farming supported by the consortium of development partners aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere and effectively adapt to the vagaries of climate change. The programme aims to restore over 250,000 hectares of degraded land and improve the livelihoods of more than 250,000 small-scale farming households while also supporting biodiversity and facilitating carbon sequestration.
The World Vision official highlights that climate-smart agriculture is a game changer for farmers and increases agricultural productivity, allowing sustainable farming besides ensuring food and nutritious security for communities. She says 285,000 trees have been planted in Kwale and 297,000 in Kilifi, with a target of planting 1.6 million trees by December 2025.
World Vision Carbon Coordinator Perkins Omondi underscores that climate-smart agriculture reflects an ambitious programme of integrating agricultural development and climate responsiveness. Omondi calls for concerted efforts to mitigate climate change and adapt to its adverse effects such as extreme weather events, changes in ecosystems, and disruptions to agriculture and livelihoods.