Increasing farmers' income through adoption of climate-smart practices and technologies

One of Climate Resilient Agribusiness for Tomorrow's (CRAFT) project objectives is for smallholder farmers to increase their income through adoption of climate-smart practices and for Agri-SME’s and cooperatives to increase their business performance by investing in climate adaptation practices.?

CRAFT, through the Climate Innovation and Investment Facility, is providing performance-based grants to agribusinesses. CRAFT supports agri-SMEs, cooperatives, and smallholder farmers with a combination of access to and knowledge about climate change impacts, climate-smart agricultural practices and technologies, and interventions to de-risk.?

Case study: Starlight Cooperative.

Starlight is a farmer-led cooperative located in Nakuru, one of the most prominent potato producing counties in Kenya. The cooperative started as a peace and economic empowerment program in 2012 by World Relief Kenya in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries following the post-election violence in 2007/2008. The main purpose was to anchor peace on a joint economic activity, which was primarily seed potato multiplication. This later evolved to include milk collection and marketing in addition to other farmer services in a bid to increase the revenue streams.

The milk entity became more successful compared to seed multiplication. “We did not have a reliable source of foundation material for seed multiplication and lacked the technical know-how to manage seed farms,” explains Laureen Njuguna, the general manager. This meant that the cooperative was not able to meet certification requirements and produce certified seeds for its members.

In addition, the cost of production was so high and yet productivity was low. “It cost over 200,000 KES (1,660￡) per acre and yet productivity was as low as 4.5 tons/acre. ?This left the cooperative with a small profit margin and losses in some seasons,” Laureen reveals. “We would spend a lot on inputs, especially fertilizer, because we never used to do soil testing on seeds fertility,” she adds.

Cooperative members continued sourcing seeds from external suppliers however, there were challenges. “There was inadequate access and availability of seeds as well as high cost of seeds due to transport costs. As a result, most of our members started recycling seeds,” Laureen shares. ?

In 2020, Starlight learnt about the CRAFT project through an encounter with the project team during a Climate Risk Assessment process. “CRAFT’s approach was appealing to us. We found that through their co-investment, we could address the climate change related challenges linked to potato seed production,” Laureen explains. Starlight then signed a partnership agreement with the CRAFT project to implement the project aimed at ‘increasing potato yield for members through increased access to certified seed potato and use of climate-smart technologies.’

Through this partnership, Starlight has been able to increase productivity to 10+ tons per acre (compared to the 7 tonnes per acre for ware potato farmers) and reduce the cost of production to 130,000 KES (about 1,000￡) per acre of potato seed. “We now carry out soil testing and only use the recommended type and quantity of fertiliser. This has led to low costs, especially on fertiliser used, “Laureen explains.

In addition to this the cooperative has also expanded the area under seed production to 15 - 20 acres and is now able to supply certified seeds to its out-growers and ware potato farmers. ?This achievement is a key contribution in enhancing the sustainability of the cooperative. It has also increased availability of affordable certified seeds to farmers, leading to increase of yields at farmer level from 3 tons/acre to 7 – 10 tons/acre of ware potato, hence overall increase on farmers’ household income. “The use of certified seed, crop-based fertiliser, surface planting using a potato planter has led to increase in yields. The use of a potato harvester has decreased cuts incurred from a loss of 40% to currently below 1%,” Laureen reveals.

The change is attributable to the CRAFT project support to de-risk the cooperative’s farm processes through grant funding and designing a set of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) interventions. The interventions include customized training modules on CSA, a robust extension system reaching out to more farmers, mechanization, access and use of weather information, localized soil amendments through soil testing and building partnership with value chain actors that provide the cooperative with productive assets such as agro chemicals.

In addition to that, the cooperative has also been able to set up an agro vet ensuring its members have access to affordable and quality climate-smart inputs. Starlight recommends adoption of CSA to all agribusinesses as a tool for addressing challenges brought about by climate change. “We have witnessed that adoption of climate-smart agriculture enables farmers to be seed secure, water secure, market secure, have understanding on soil health, gain skills on crop management and provides a platform for inclusion of youth and women in Agriculture,” Laureen shares.

As a result of these investments and support to farmers, Starlight Cooperative won the Award of being the "Best Cooperative in Potato Production in the County". “This is a motivation factor for the cooperative to continue with implementation of CSA initiatives and focus on making a difference in the county through advocating for adoption of climate-smart agriculture,” Laureen explains. She adds, “We are also motivated to contribute, nationally and globally, to efforts tackling climate change.”

The Climate Resilient Agribusiness for Tomorrow (CRAFT) Project?is a 5-year Project being implemented in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The project is implemented by a consortium consisting of SNV (lead partner), Wageningen University & Environmental Research (WUR & WEnR), the CGIAR research programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), Agriterra and Rabo Partnerships, and is financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS).