The Conservation Agriculture for Resilient Food Security and Profitability (CA4FS) project in Machakos and Laikipia Counties of Kenya is a three year project supported by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa’s (AGRA) through its Soil Health Program (SHP) and implemented by African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) in collaboration with Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI).

The overall goal of this project is to improve food and income security and build the resilience of smallholder farmers in Machakos and Laikipia counties by enhancing the adoption of conservation agriculture practices in Kenya.

The project activities are heavily field based and several field based activities are conducted. The ACT program officer-Kenya (Peter Kuria), Mr. Mwailu (CEO-Mwailu enterprises), Agricultural extension officers (Mr. Muchangi and Mr. Ondimo) and Boniface the Field based officer held a series of meetings with farmers in laikipia East and Central Sub-counties in May this year primarily to train farmers on CA principles and practices, address the problem of produce marketing and inputs access.

Some of the activities involve backstopping of farmer demonstration plots to see their performance, participating in community meetings where CA equipment’s are showcased and ACT publicity materials like calendars, brochures and Case studies are given to the community leaders.

Inadequate produce market is often cited as one of the major challenges many smallholder farmers in Laikipia county and other parts of Kenya face. This is a huddle that ACT is working towards to help farmers in Laikipia County overcome. The problem is many-fold: Poor infrastructure and barriers in penetrating the market caused by a limited resource base, lack of information, lack of/inadequate support institutions and poor policies among other factors.

Speaking during one of the meeting held in Mwireri Village in Laikipia East, Peter kuria,ACT Programme officer, Kenya informed the farmers that this challenge is set to be addressed once and for all. He added that this would be done through the introduction of contractual farming system between the farmer organizations’ and Mwailu enterprise which is set to roll out as soon as farmers could organize themselves. Mwailu enterprise is a bulk produce buying limited company and mainly deals with sorghum, Dolicos Lablab and Maize.

Under this a arrangement , "a Contractual agreement between the farmer and Mwailu enterprise would enable the farmer to enjoy various benefits such as: improved household incomes; enhanced access to credit facilities; access to cheap inputs and access to relevant farming tips" on the other hand, Mwailu entreprise would buy Gadam variety sorghum, Dolicos Lablab and maize from the farmers.

"I got an opportunity to train the farmers on CA principles and practices. During the training, farmers took an active role by asking many questions. At one time while training on cover crops I would ask in Swahili " Nani ako na sehemu ya shamba kwake ambayo imekosa rotuba ya kutosha?" ("who has a piece of land which doesn’t bear anything? "). All the farmers would raise their hand as a sign of degraded soils in the area. After learning that cover crops would help replenish their soils they requested to be given small quantities of the cover crop seeds to try in their farms. We gave them five seeds of cannavalia and mucuna so that they can plant and produce more seeds to cover their entire farms and that of their neighbors. After the training some farmers expressed their willingness to buy CA equipment's such as Jab planters and weed scrappers in readiness for use in the coming planting season."