The Solutions

Food producing communities (i.e., Farmers & processors) can mitigate and or adopt to climate change and improve resilience by improving the micro-climate of their crop growing environments. Dry spells and drought in particular, which causes crop failure that leads to periodic hunger in over 20 Counties in Kenya, can most effectively be combated by providing supplemental irrigation water to crops.

However, the long term solution to frequent dry spells needs to be a concern to everyone who eats food. The Community Action Research Project+ (CARP+) approach seeks to engage stakeholders of various commodity irrigated value chains (IVCs) through experiential learning that leads to a deeper understanding of the potential solutions to challenges caused by CC effects. The establishment of the Climate and Water Smart Agriculture Centre (CaWSA-C) aims to provide a practical platform that engages farmers, students and IVC stakeholders in experimenting and showcasing existing CC mitigation and or adaptation technologies and innovations.

Water harvesting and storage of rainwater for irrigation, provides great opportunities for growth and development of numerous food commodities in Kenya.Conservation agriculture and climate smart farming practices that help meet crop water requirements are important strategies that need to be validated for varied agro-climatic zones and crops.