Food system transformation through community-led innovations: The case of a smallholder farming community in Makueni County, Kenya. AESS 2021: Community, commitment, collaboration: Moving toward a just future

Abstract

Food systems transformative actions are pathways for increased food and nutrition for all, increased household incomes, stronger resilience against vulnerabilities, enhanced equity and justice, increased productivity and sustained environmental integrity. We use one Transformative Pilot Action (TPA) in Kenya to show how community-led innovations can contribute to food sustainability. The food sustainability assessment framework (FOODSAF) was developed through a transdisciplinary research process building upon cross-continental experiences and insights from the global south. The framework assesses the extent to which food systems guarantees right to food, social-ecological resilience, reduces poverty and inequality, improves food security and enhances environmental performance. The framework uses a multi-actors’ participatory process to interrogate, negotiate and prioritize interventions for collective implementation. Participatory process showed several strength of the local food system and the following key weaknesses; ‘poor performance of the value chain’ and ‘low capacity of the food system to store and process food’. After an intensive negotiation process among the different farmer groups, various intervention areas were identified to improve food sustainability. The main interventions were; capacity building, social self-organisation, market integration and price stabilization. Capacity building was achieved through smart projectors where farmers had access to videos in locally spoken language(s), while construction of a grain aggregation facility helped to improve post-harvest management, elimination of middle men and stabilisation of market prices for better returns, and food and seed security. The farmer groups formed a CBO that enhanced social self-organisation and local resources mobilisation skills that hitherto were weak in the community. The lessons learned were; a) the participatory food sustainability assessment framework is an innovative tool that facilitated negotiation and prioritization of action by farmers, b) collective action was successful due to social self-organisation that sustained resource mobilization at community level, c) transdisciplinarity created context-specific solutions with potential to create sustainable food systems.

Full text

Food system transformation through
community-led innovations: The case of a
smallholder farming community in Makueni
County, Kenya
AESS 2021: Community, commitment, collaboration: Moving toward a
just future
June 28, 2021 - July 1, 2021
Stellah Mukhovi (PhD), Boniface Kiteme (PhD), John Mwangi, Grace
Wambugu
smmukhovi@uonbi.ac.ke

Outline of the presentation
1. Introduction
The Food Systems Research
2. FOODSAF
3. Transformative Pilot Action (TPA):
MAKWAMBU CBO
Community consultation and
negotiation process
Implementation Approach
Sustainability strategy
4. Lessons learned

Three food systems were studied in Kenya
namely
1. Agroindustrial food system (K1) based on
horticulture (vegetables for export mainly
to European Market
2. Regional food system (K2)- dairy/meat
and wheat/barley as main value chains
3. Local food system (K3)-smallholders
producing for household and local
markets (maize, potatoes, beans and
vegetables)
Introduction : Food Systems Research

The Food Sustainability Assessment Framework (FOODSAF) was
developed through a transdisciplinary research process in the
global south (Kenya and Bolivia).
We used 15 indicators for participatory assessment of food
sustainability and identified strong and weak areas in food system
Assessment was based on five dimensions of food sustainability:
Food security
Poverty and inequality
Environmental performance
Social ecological resilience
Right to food
Assessment expanded to include 4 countries which were non-
research core areas
The Food Sustainability Framework (FoodSAF):
Background

Selection of Makueni County in South-East
Kenya considered long term involvement
(since 2002) of participating research
scientists
•Assessment of socio-ecological changes and
dynamics (2002-2007)
•Food security and livelihood studies (2003-
2006)
•Introduction of Conservation Agriculture
among the smallholder farmers (2008-2013)
•Evaluation of impacts of CA on climate
change adaptation and household food
security (2014-2018) Conservation Agriculture
The Food Sustainability Framework (FoodSAF):
Validation and Application in Makueni County

Process and outcome
Participatory food sustainability assessment with
farmers and government extension personnel
Two key weak links in the food system identified,
namely;
poor performance of the value chain
low capacity of the food system to store and process food’
The Food Sustainability Framework (FoodSAF):
Validation and Application in Makueni County

Process and outcome:
Diagnosis was carried out during a participatory food
sustainability assessment with farmers and extension
personnel
After intensive negotiation process involving the
participating farmers and extension officers some promising
interventions were identified namely;
capacity building,
social self-organisation,
market integration and price stabilization
The interventions were consolidated into a
Transformative Pilot Action for implementation
The Food Sustainability Framework (FoodSAF):
Validation and Application in Makueni County

Capacity building
We used the smart projector platform to build capacity of
farmers on post harvest management practices, disease
control among others
The videos were in language the farmers could
understand
Social Self-organisation
The farmers were supported to register a CBO-
MAKWAMBU CBO
The CBO brings together several farmer groups
The CBO supported local resource mobilization skills
Market Access and price stabilization
Construction of grain aggregation store
The Food Sustainability Framework (FoodSAF):
Implementation of the TPA

Sustainability strategy
CBO to join Kenya Small-scale Farmers Forum
(KESSFF) and Eastern and Southern Africa small-scale
Farmers Forum (ESAFF) http://kessf.0rg
https://esaff.org/index-php/
capacity building on domestic and international
agricultural policies
Enhanced Market access
Access to credit
Start a seed bank
Implementation of FOODSAF Results in the
framework of the TPA

a)Transdisciplinarity created context-specific
solutions with potential to create sustainable
food systems
b)The participatory food sustainability
assessment framework is an innovative tool
that facilitated negotiation and prioritization
of action by farmers
c) Collective action was successful due to social
self-organisation that sustained resource
mobilization at community level
Lessons learned
Implementation of FOODSAF Results in the
framework of the TPA

Thank you