TROCAIRE

CATEGORY: CSO
CSA PROJECT: Climate Smart Agriculture
SCALE: County coordination actions
LOCATION: Embu, Tharaka Nithi, Kitui
PERIOD OF THE PROJECT: 2 years
GRANT SIZE OF THE PROJECT: KES 28,000, 000

Summary of Actions

Trocaire started working in Kenya in mid 1970s and it focuses on developing sustainable communities, supporting gender based violence victims, promoting democracy and helping communities prepare for and respond to natural disasters. Key organization activities include; training farmers on permaculture farm designs and zoning, water conservation structures such as terraces, soil management measures, agro ecological practices such as food forestry and establishment of demo farms where farmers go to learn all about CSA approaches and practices.

Context

Kenya’s agriculture is mainly rainfed and therefore highly vulnerable to the changing climatic conditions.The most vulnerable region are the arid and the semi arid regions.Trocaire implements its CSA projects through partners in Kitui, Ishiara, and Tharaka Nithi. The three project sites are classified under Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASALS), given their climatic conditions e.g minimal to no rainfall which makes rain dependent farming almost impossible. The only way to ensure food security in these areas is through CSA implementation.

Objective

The objective of the project is to support the most vulnerable in the drought affected areas to attain food security through Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA).

Key Interventions

FARM LEVEL TARGET (NO OF FARMERS) INDICATORS MONITORED
Soil management 11,000 – Number of farmers trained on soil management skills Number of farmers who adopt soil management techniques
Agroforestry 11,000 – The number of farmers trained on agro ecological techniques
– The number of farmers who adopt agro ecological techniques
Promotion of drought
tolerant crops		 11,000 -The number of farmers issued with drought tolerant seeds
– The quantity of harvest from drought tolerant seeds
– The quantity of harvest sold from the drought resistant seeds
– The quantity of seeds stored to be used in the next planting season
Livestock feed management 11,000 The number of farmers who have adopted feed
management techniques
Climate smart livestock
practices		 11,000 Number of farmers issued with improved breeds of livestock
the number of offspring from the improved breeds for continuity
Smart water management 11,000 The number of farmers trained on smart water
management
The number of farmers who adopt smart water
management
Disease and pest
management		 11,000 The number of farmers who have been trained and adopted disease and pest management practices
Waste management 11,000 The number of farmers trained on waste management
Renewable energy 11,000 The number of farmers who have adopted the use of renewable energy
BEYOND FARM LEVEL TARGET BENEFICIARIES INDICATORS MONITORED
Gender (Youth and Women inclusion in CSA) 11,000 -The number of women, men, and youth who participate in and benefit from the project activities
Policy and Advocacy 11,000 Evidence of integration of agro-ecology into county government planning and budgeting
CSA based access to
markets and value
chains		 11,000 The number of community based marketing groups formed
The quantity of green grams aggregated to be sold

Participation In Key Climate & Agriculture Networks

The organisation is a member of Coopération Internationale pour le Développement et la Solidarité
(CIDSE) and Inter Agency Working Group (IAWG).

Involvement in CSA

Relevance of CSA MSP to Work

  • Research
  • Policy formulation
  • Knowledge dissemination
  • Technology transfer
  • Coordination and networking
  • Communication
  • Financing climate smart agriculture actions
  • Information about CSA
  • Networking
  • Learning and exchange
  • Reporting and showcasing
  • Influence policy environment

Recommendation On Ways To Support MSP

  • Dissemination of climate smart agriculture knowledge and technologies
  • Developing capacities of key actors involved in climate smart
  • Mobilizing actors and facilitating dialogue on climate smart agriculture issues/actions
  • Monitoring, evaluation and audit of climate smart agriculture aspects to enhance accountability
  • Coordination of actions.

Lessons Learned and Challenges in Implementation of CSA Project

Community based organizations are better placed in marketing the farm products compared to marketing individually. Some of the challenges include persistent drought in our project areas in the recent two years which made the implementation of activities difficult especially those that require water; aggregation of grains proved difficult given the vulnerability of the target beneficiaries and their urgent need for money and low farm gate prices and limited access to other markets rather than the local ones. Some of the achievements realised are agro high adoption rate (90%) of ecological practices; Sources of income have increased due to the nature based enterprises.

Relevant Links & References

Homepage

Organisation Information and Contact Address incase of Follow Up

Name: Denis Kioko
Email address: Denis.Kioko@trocaire.org
Phone address: +254 734317856
Organisational Website: https://www.trocaire.org/