An article on Reuters AlertNet looks at how two women farmers in Kenya’s Rift Valley are dealing with erratic weather patterns. While one is struggling to produce maize amid higher temperatures, the other is making the most of the situation to cultivate fruit and vegetables.

Practices to improve maize crop yields, such as rotating crops, tilling the soil less to stop it drying out, and covering it with fodder remains after each harvest, are promoted by the World Agroforestry Centre, but changing weather adds more challenges to maize cultivation.

Many, including local officials, believe the disappearance of forests – in particular the Mau Forest Complex - due to years of unchecked timber harvesting and land encroachment is causing rising temperatures and lowering rainfall. But a 2007 report by the University of Nairobi, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Kenya Meteorological Department says the country-wide changes in temperature (a mean annual temperature increase of 2.5 to 5 degrees) are probably due to wider climate change.

These changes are proving a setback for some farmers but opening new doors for a growing number of others. An estimated 6 million women are involved in agriculture in Kenya, but most practise subsistence farming and have little exposure to market opportunities. A new $3 million project by the Japanese government (through the World Bank) plans to empower some 3,400 women farmers in Kenya’s Rift Valley and Eastern regions to access agricultural technologies and negotiate market prices.

Read the full article: Kenya's farmers spot opportunities in warming climate