THEME 3
SMALL-HOLDER AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY
The importance of increasing small-holder food production is obvious since 80-90% of Kenyan s population are working in their farm lands and depend on agriculture production for their livelihood and income. In terms of traditional economic measures like GPD or even agricultural productivity, Kenya’s economic progress is limited between 1990 to 2000 the economy has actually stagnated when measured by steward economic criteria.
Increasing population growth and the fragmentation of family farms through traditional inheritance systems means that a family of eight in Kenyan farming regions farms only 0.4 to 0.6 hectares, and anything approaching modern practice are yet to adopted. Commercial fertilizers, pesticides are not used. Grain contribution, mainly maize with beans or millet is a document cropping system, with improved varieties unavailable. Maize is grown, extensively and invariably without improved cultivation practices and characterized by a low yields and frequent occurrences of risk diseases.
Double cropping is rare, due to inadequate water and prevailing systems which provide few incentives to increase production. The few population of cattle, sheep and goats and poultry are poorly fed, diseases and underproductive. Local participation in self –help project has not improved farming methods. Malaria eradication and improved health services, road and market development, necessary for cash economy and market development, and co-operative societies for agricultural inputs and marketing are missing. There has been no new major revenue –producing activities.
Farmers are not increasing cereal and other foods production to feed themselves and have enough to sell for income. There is no evidence that government agricultural projects had contributed to increase agricultural yields, increased productivity or higher per capita income.
It has been found that technical innovations introduced through foreign aid programmes have continued as experiments or demonstrations without being adopted by Kenyan small holder farmers . This is partly because the focus has been on high –technology inputs , such as irrigation water , fertilizer and improved seeds, which remain unavailable to small holder farmers.
Government progress are hindered by the scarcity of Kenyan technicians, administrators, extension staff and advisors to run the expanded agricultural educational research and extension services. National development plans in particular are seen to suffer from high civil service turn-over, as subsequent policy framework s have tended to override and supersede earlier ones . considerable interest in agricultural development has not been stimulated to maintain interest and gain experience necessary for sustainability. This is due to low morale of the government extension systems to implement education, training, research services, soil surveys and mapping.
To date, kenyas research linkages and field research systems remains heavily depended on local energy, contacts and know-how. They have a few accountments critical to effective rural work , such as four wheel drives, good research contacts, information, efficient logistics.
. These prevailing conditions underscores the need for a more participatory result oriented programme in Kenya for increased agricultural production to feed the growing population and to provide an economic base for overall development. ‘None of Kenya’s policy objectives can be achieved without substantial and sustained growth agricultural output”. The need for feed a growing population is alarming. This need provides “THIN” organization with a key event of improving agricultural food productivity in traditional systems such as Kenyans. We know that farmers are rational, and would adopt new improved technologies that are locale specific, affordable and produce more when provided with necessary inpts , such as affordable seed, fertilizer, tools, credit on the other hand, and accessible, profitable markets and storage for surplus production on the other. Earlier agricultural development models had tendered to minimize the rationality and complexity of small holder farmers’ decision – making including their adoption of new technologies.
A third factor which has come to the scenes in the last decade that gives further impetus to new investments in the agricultural sector, is the remarkable production potential and acceptability of the traditional crops which are more adoptive and resistant to diseases. Continuity in vision, strategies and management of THINS’ smallholder production efforts will be provided by THIN staff and other partners including the government entities. The board will work harder to motivate the Kenyans, donors and supporters to concentrate resources and agricultural service programmes in areas with the greatest production potential – initially targeting five districts in 2010, eight in 20016 and eighteen in 20012. This is owing to glaring regional disparities, often due to varying rainfall, land access and varying traditional and cultural beliefs all of which contribute to food “insecurity”. The provinces with the highest levels of absolute food poverty (measured as a percentage of population) are in the arid and semi – arid areas of North – Eastern, Rift valley and Nyanza provinces. The percentage of children under five who were severely “malnourished” rose from 5 percent in 1993 to 7 percent in 2000 and the percentage of severely stunted has risen to 13 percent to – day. These trends indicate that food security is still a major challenge. The same is for accessing basic services as well as representation in the political and economic are. Nevertheless gender disparities persist in levels of poverty among female – headed households.
Outcomes Brief description of cooperation strategies Major lines of Action Programme modality
Increased household food security and income
Improved nutrition - Improved cultivation methods and seed multiplication programmes.
- Empowerment
- Additional crops and varieties.
- Integrated soil fertility, pests control, weed and diseases using cultural and biological methods.
- Organized partnerships to support complementary of different stakeholders to enhance the impact of their investments.
- Smallholder commodity networks and cooperative service.
-Organize village agricultural multipurpose development programme as a vehicle of extension.
- Capability building at all levels: farmers, groups, extension staff, and researchers.
- build a system to teachers, extension staff, researchers in daily contact with farmer’s problem.
- Establish a national research for entomology and disease prevention and control
- Provide adequate information to groups.
- Establish credit facility. Collaboration and joint programming.
THEME 4
LIVESTOCK PRODUCTIVITY AND HEALTH.
Livestock are important in supporting the households, not only of poor farmers, but also of consumers, traders and labourers in the country. As for as we are aware, there, has been no priority – setting exercise in animal health and production research and development specifically targeted at its impacts on poverty alleviation. Many institutions and institutional organizations have embarked on priority setting exercises to ensure optional impact, and appropriate levels of resource allocation in the face of inadequacies of funding to fill all their requirements. These exercises are often qualitative and, indeed, take into consideration the relative magnitudes of the different challenges that face the predicted returns from investment in different options. A few are qualitative. But they have had no advantage in the evaluation of direct impacts on poverty. First , because they do not involve the poor themselves. Secondly they employ statistics and information from developed countries.
Animal health information systems exist in most the developed world, particularly for the intensive livestock production systems in which they serve as a valuable aid to enhancing production efficiency. In the public sector, these are often well developed for the detection and monitoring of national priority diseases undergoing programmes of control or eradication. In Kenya, public sector animal health information on disease incidences, and particularly on disease impact in terms of morbidity, mortality, reproduction loses etc are often reclementary. This situation has deteriorated over the last two decades as public sector support to veterinary services has declined dramatically. Furthermore, with such limited resources, the majority of data on animal disease occurrence comes from the more commercial production systems or the more accessible areas.
Some data on diseases of these livestock keepers with less than 1 US $ a day are very limited at best. Thus even the basic epidemiological data is unavailable. There is a need to document old and new information around the country from communities, groups, individuals, NGOs, research institutes, universities and international organizations and then set in motion research opportunities for most of the diseases scoring the highest impact as having the highest constraints to the poor and undertake an economic surplus and benefit cost approaches.
It is also important to consider both short – and long term research opportunities but new technologies tailored for sustainable adoption and use by the poor livestock keepers, are required, and are demonstrated to have a significant pay – off, as such research can take many years, and should not be marginalized by short sightedness in investment policies. Traditional Healthcare Integration Network (THIN) is therefore presenting short and long term research and development opportunities. Whatever the research opportunities are, it is important that the research products are specifically targeted at poor livestock keepers. In essence, this means they should be appropriate, affordable and accessible, and have positive benefits on human capital ( improved health, nutrition and quality of life), social capital ( improved status in society) and financial capital ( improved income), as well as no negative impacts on natural capital ( particularly the environment) which are the causes of poverty.
Poverty is a problem of extraordinary population, with an estimated 24 million of Kenya’s 40 million people living on less than US 2 $ a day. Development assistance by governments and institutional agencies has places considerable emphasis in the past on policies ans strategies designed to strengthen national economies, in the belief that by supporting strong commodity sectors, there could be a trickle down effect to the poor. But this is not a static situation. Clearly strengthening of national incomes, markets and information are important, but it is increasingly argued that the time has come to develop policies and strategies that are more specific and of direct benefit to the poor themselves. And livestock and their diseases fit into this picture.
Given the importance of livestock to the poor; facilitating empowerment and enhancing security and promoting opportunity and the high risk to the poor from diseases of their animals that impact livestock productivity and human health, it argued that strategies on alleviating these diseases that are of priority could have direct and major impacts on poverty alleviation within population of poor peoples, women are particularly likely to benefit from improved animal health. They are particularly vulnerable in poor communities, but with their primary responsibility for the management of livestock in most societies, and for the marketing of many livestock products, they stand to be major beneficiaries of improved animal health.
Livestock products, particularly meat and milk, provide an important opportunity to overcome malnutrition, by providing protein, micronutrients and vitamins. Furthermore livestock are a powerful means of enhancing the purchasing power of the poor through the sale of their products, income that can be used for the purchase of food, education and healthcare. When it comes to environment, livestock are a most valuable asset, providing the essential fertilizer for crop production, or unaffordable in any other form. This endorsement of livestock becomes even more appealing when the focus is poverty alleviation rather than national agricultural developments, given the multiple roles played by livestock in the livelihoods of poor communities in the country.
Expected outcomes Brief description of cooperation strategies Major lines of Action Programme modality
Reduced morbidity and mortality of livestock
Expected opportunities for sustainance production and income diversification
Capabilities for sustainable animal productivity enhanced Further partnerships and collaboration in mitigation
Develop impact assessments and epidemiology
Set up diagnosis to support control -Establish hygiene issues for the prevention of parasitic zoonosis and neonatal morbidity
Support specific progammes to collect document and test information
Set up effective collaboration with relevant stakeholders and joint mechanisms for early warning, nutritional differences / imbalances, endo and ecto – parasitic control. Collaboration joint programming and implementation.
