In Kenya, food is produced mainly by Small Scale Farmers (SSFs), the majority of whom are women subsistence farmers. They receive minimal extension services and lack the agronomic skills and knowledge necessary to increase their farm productivity and incomes. Most SSFs primarily cultivate maize, beans, and vegetables, which are key staples but highly prone to failure when rainfall patterns change—which is increasingly common due to climate change. Current government extension services focus on conventional agricultural practices, which require expensive farm inputs. Agroecological practices—which are based on ecological, economic, and social principles that help rebuild fragile ecosystems and make farming systems more resilient—can make a significant difference, but agroecology is not recognized as an alternative to dominant patterns of producing, processing, distributing, and consuming food. In Western Kenya specifically, a high prevalence of poverty, high population density, severe environmental degradation, and deteriorating soil fertility also affect food production and contribute to food and nutrition insecurity. Moreover, SSFs’ capacity to innovate and experiment has not been recognized and supported; their potential to be a part of the solution has been ignored by policy makers.
The Community Rehabilitation & Environmental Protection (CREP) Programme implements a range of activities related to food and nutritional security, environmental conservation and rehabilitation, water and sanitation, micro-enterprise development, gender equity, and disaster mitigation. Under its food and nutritional security set of work, the CREP Programme promotes agroecological approaches that enable the sustainable production of diverse crops, by establishing viable agroecological approaches at the community level and convincing policymakers that these approaches are a sustainable and safe way to produce food.
Specifically, the CREP Programme is using the Farmers Research Network (FRN) approach to give farmers an equal voice alongside researchers in setting the research agenda, designing trials, and collecting and analyzing data, all towards influencing policymakers. In addition, location- and context-specific information on agroecological approaches, weather, and more is being disseminated to SSFs through mobile phones (i.e. digital extension services). Agroecological approaches shared with SSFs cover integrated nutrient management (e.g. composting, organic farming, nitrogen-fixing crops); conservation tillage; agro-forestry; crop diversification; biological pest and disease management; efficient water and landscape management; and more. Ultimately, the CREP Programme seeks to accelerate the transition to agroecology among a critical mass of SSFs in Western Kenya, especially among women, and to increase agricultural productivity and resilience.