Abstract
AbstractThe vicious cycle of food insecurity in Kenya and Africa at large is partly attributed to the high reliance on rainfed agriculture, which makes production systems vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change and variability. Conservation agriculture (CA) has been disseminated as a climate-smart practice that operates on three main principles to realize the multiple benefits of making crop production systems more resilient to climate change impacts, enhancing food security, and providing environmental services, such as carbon sequestration. As a major source of livelihood in the Taita Hills, agriculture is constrained by climate change owing to its rainfed nature. The yield and environmental and economic benefits of CA make it a suitable alternative approach to sustainable agricultural intensification, which is fundamentally different from conventional approaches based on intensive tillage and often disrupts ecosystem functions. This chapter provides the rationale for enhancing the adoption of CA in the Taita Hills by evaluating the current challenges affecting crop production, the role of CA in addressing the challenges and its potential benefits, and the barriers that must be overcome in order to promote its wide-scale adoption. A number of constraints appear to hinder the wide-scale adoption of CA in the Taita Hills, including lack of awareness, tenure-related issues, and weak policy and institutional support. Addressing these constraints will help catalyze investments for upscaling CA in the Taita Hills, with potential for replication in other parts of the country.
Highlights
Despite being the backbone of many sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) economies, agriculture remains predominantly (95%) rainfed and vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and variability (Adhikari et al 2015)
According to the GoK (2017), the Taita Hills experience two major rainfall seasons: the long-rains season experienced between March and May (MAM) and the short-rains season experienced between October and December (OND), which in turn give rise to two planting seasons
The inputs used in common bean production were minimal, including commercial fertilizer reported by only 2% of the respondents, improved seed reported by 6.2%, manure reported by 4.7%, and pesticides reported by 0.2% of the respondents
Summary
Despite being the backbone of many sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) economies, agriculture remains predominantly (95%) rainfed and vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and variability (Adhikari et al 2015). The high spatial and temporal variability of rainfall, high temperatures, extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, and degradation of the sector’s natural resource base (land, water, etc.) affect the agricultural production and food “Conservation Agriculture,” Possible Climate Change Adaptation Option in. The Special Report on Climate Change by the IPCC (2019) indicates that conservation agricultural practices have the potential to restore degraded land and enhance food security. As a major source of livelihood and well-being in the Taita Hills, agriculture remains highly sensitive and exposed to the impacts of climate change This emphasizes the need to create an enabling environment to increase investments in sustainable agricultural practices that enhance farmers’ buffer capacity while increasing productivity in the long term. We provide the rationale for enhancing the adoption of CA in the Taita Hills by evaluating the current challenges affecting crop production, the role of CA, and its potential benefits as well as the challenges and barriers that must be overcome in order to promote its wide-scale adoption The findings of this chapter will enable policy makers to prioritize investments for scaling up the adoption of CA practice in the Taita Hills, with potential for replication in other parts of the country
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