Student Network for Human Security (SNHS) Blog

Yesterday, we have one enlightening lecture by one of our colleagues from Environmental Studies, Mr. Matheaus K. KAUTI, 3rd year PhD student. The following is the abstract that very kindly introduced during the seminar session. Thank you so much!

The Government of Kenya, with assistance from World Bank and IMF, instituted neo-liberal economic and structural adjustment programs with a view to address and stimulate the declining trend in economic growth through the 1980s and 1990s. Implementation of the programs negatively affected smallholder farmers’ production due to cost of agricultural inputs and consumer goods rising faster than the prices of agricultural produce. Concurrently, effects of the variability of climate and precipitation patterns intrinsically and fundamentally link in shaping Kenya’s smallholders vulnerability.

This study is about coping and adaptation processes by smallholder farmers in Kenya in the context of these changes. It is premised on the detection of dynamic changes in livelihood strategies through understanding the ways in which households and communities cope and adapt under conditions of crisis, risk and uncertainty using the case of crop variety selection. Drawing data from 40 households in two case study sites located in Central Kenya, I take a longitudinal perspective in identifying patterns of crop selection and deselection and contextualize the emerging patterns within the mediating forces affecting smallholder farmers decision-making.

I reveal variations of patterns in chronological sequencing of crop variety selection both within crops and between households over time. These patterns are substantiated by investigation of a myriad of considerations by farmers in crop selection and deselection. I classify these into five explanatory elements which interplay in influencing smallholder farmers’ decision-making. Results indicate that in addition to geographical-environment (climate) and agronomical-botanical (plant characteristics) considerations, economic (commercial) rationalization is becoming an influential factor in the recent past. A tendency towards diversification and market-oriented production system i.e. switch from long maturing to early maturing crops that can generate income all year round is evident. This is necessitated by demand for cash income due to inflation pressures and elimination of subsidies as a result of economic liberalization policies. Of less importance to farmers are social-cultural and agricultural extension services considerations.

The study demonstrates that crop variety selection as a coping and adaptation strategy is an outcome of factors and processes that interact at a given place and time, these include geography and/or agro-ecology, agronomic (botanical), economic (commercial), socio-cultural background and historical processes. I therefore, argue for a holistic place-based approach at both household-level and regional-level in understanding of location-specific context of the human-environment system interaction in which rural livelihoods of smallholders in Kenya take place. Even though the study is limited to local scope and subject matter of crop selection, the results presented underscore the significance of understanding indigenous coping and adaptive capabilities in facilitating and informing targeting of interventions designed to improve people’s livelihoods.

Stay tuned for coming seminars.