“Conservation Agriculture,” Possible Climate Change Adaptation Option in Taita Hills, Kenya

Abstract

The 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.