“We conquered a small universe in a short amount of time,” says Constance Neely, reflecting on the achievements of a workshop which she helped to organize in Nairobi, in October 2014. “In just two days, we reviewed over 40 Kenyan climate-smart agriculture projects, and we came up with some coherent technical and policy messages.”

The original idea was to organize a workshop to review the achievements of the Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture (MICCA) project. However, Constance, who divides her time between the World Agroforestry Centre and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), decided that it would make more sense to involve as many people as possible, from as many different initiatives, in a climate-smart workshop.

Participants at the workshop, which was convened by FAO, the World Agroforestry Centre, the Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the Climate Change Unit of Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, included scientists, farmers, development practitioners and policy makers. They shared and analysed scientific evidence and field experience from 44 projects in working groups which focused on climate information and insurance, cropping systems, livestock and aquaculture, energy, conservation agriculture and agroforestry, climate-smart agriculture and gender, farmer adoption, advisory and capacity development, and markets and microfinance.

“Each group discussed what made projects work, explored how to build capacity and came up with a clear set of messages,” says Sabrina Chesterman, lead author with Constance of the technical workshop document, which has been published as a CCAFS Working Paper: Evidence and Policy Implications of Climate Smart Agriculture in Kenya.

This highlights an array of different climatesmart practices which are currently being adopted by Kenyan farmers, including agroforestry, conservation agriculture, integrated crop production systems and efficient grazing practices. These are designed to help farmers increase food production, become more resilient to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“The process used was as important as the technical material,” says Constance. “When the stakeholders interact with the evidence and experiences based on their desired outcome, the commonalities and tensions emerge and lessons learned are steadily forged.”

The policy messages outlined in the working paper were subsequently used in the revision of Kenya’s 2014 Draft National Climate Change Policy Framework. A policy brief – Transitioning Towards Climate Smart Agriculture in Kenya: Linking Research, Practice and Policy – introduced the policy messages to a wider audience. It was launched at the UN Climate Change Meeting (COP 20) in Peru in December 2014.

Here, in brief, are the key messages:

•  Climate-smart agriculture should contribute to building opportunities for employment, education and commerce. It is smart precisely because it addresses a range of key development issues.

• Research, agricultural activities and policy development should be integrated from the outset. This will help to improve decision-making at all levels.

• Integrating the production of livestock, fish, crops and trees on farms or throughout the landscape can enhance productivity, strengthen the resilience of farming systems and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• Specific attention should be paid to building the capacity of women and young people who manage natural resources.

•   It is important to connect policies to regulations, as inconsistencies between the two can undermine climate-smart agriculture.
• Climate-smart agriculture still faces a number of knowledge gaps, such as the lack of baseline data for measuring, reporting and verifying the effectiveness of climate-smart agriculture

Reference

Transitioning Towards Climate Smart Agriculture in Kenya: Linking Research, Practice and Policy. 2015, FAO