This paper explored the policy potential of agroecology in Kenya in contributing to food security. Specifically, the paper assessed how the current agriculture and climate change related policies and strategies would be mobilized to support agroecology. Study methodology was a qualitative and included a) literature review and evaluation of 54 policy, strategy and framework documents developed by relevant National and County Ministries between the years of 2010-2020 and, b) key informant interviews were administered to 20 policy makers in two Ministries, that is Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and, Environment and Forestry. Results show that of the 10 agroecology principles, only resilience, efficiency, diversity and synergies are clearly articulated in over 80% of the documents. Other principles such as culture and food traditions, co-creation and sharing of knowledge, recycling and responsible governance can be inferred from about 45% of the documents. However, principles of human and social values and circular and solidarity economy that are transformative and can lead to food security and sovereignty are not considered in any of the documents. Findings from the key informant interviews indicate that 78% of the policy makers do not clearly understand agroecology and its importance in climate change adaptation and building resilience. Of the 22% who understand agroecology, 32% of them advocated for inclusion of agroecology within agriculture and natural resource management policies and strategies. The paper recommends that agroecology manual should be developed, and capacity of policy makers built to incorporate agroecology into existing agricultural policies and/or strategies such as climate smart agriculture strategy and its accompanying implementation strategy.

1. Mary Nyasimi, PhD
§ Mary Nyasimi is the Director of Inclusve Climate Change Adaptation for a Sustainable
Africa (ICCASA)
§ She holds a PhD and Masters in Sustainable Agriculture and Anthropology from Iowa
State University, Ames, Iowa USA and a Bachelors degrees in Natural Resource
Management from Egerton University
§ She has immense experience and knowledge of Gender, Agriculture and Climate
Change, gender responsive programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation skills, and excellent knowledge of results based program management
§ Dr. Nyasimi is currently involved in writing training manuals on gender and climate
change related issues and providing capacity building to policy makers, NGOs and
CBOs across Africa
§ She is widely published in refereed journals and has published books chapters
§ She is a UNFCCC negotiator on gender and climate change issues
§ Dr. Nyasimi is currently contributing a author to IPCC 6 report on Africa
§ For leisure, Dr. Nyasimi likes hiking through forests, reading and is an avid tennis
fanatic

2. Policy Potential of
Agroecology in the Context
of Climate Change in Kenya
Mary Nyasimi, PhD
Inclusive Climate Change Adaptation for a
Sustainable Africa (ICCASA)

3. Background
§ Sustainability and resilience of agricultural systems are a
matter of survival
§ The COVID-19 crisis has impressively demonstrated how
vulnerable our current agriculture and food systems are to
disruptions.
§ Climate change poses an even bigger and deeper challenge
for our agricultural systems.
§ A radical shift in farming system - increase food production
substantially and sustainably in the reality of the changing
climate and declining natural resources.
§ Agroecology - promising approaches to achieve the
mitigation and adaptation potentials of agricultural systems
to climate change and to strengthen their resilience.
§ There is a lack of a thorough and robust comparative
assessments supporting this claim, as well as guiding steps
to enable the transformation of international and national
policies.

4. Study Objective
To explore the policy potential
of agroecology in Kenya in
contributing to food security
Specific Objective
To assess how the current
agriculture and climate change
related policies and strategies
would be mobilized to support
agroecology.

5. Methodology
Qualitative research study
a) Literature review and content analysis of 54 policy, strategy and
framework documents of agroecology principles: resilience,
efficiency, diversity, biodiversity, synergies, co-creating and
knowledge sharing, recycling and governance
b) Key informant interviews
administered to 20 policy
makers, 25 NGO and 32 CBOs

6. Results and Analysis
• Agroecology as a term is not mentioned in policies
• Agroecology principles such as resilience,
efficiency, diversity and synergies are clearly
articulated in the policies and strategies
• Principles of culture and food traditions, co-
creation and sharing of knowledge, recycling and
responsible governance can be inferred
• Principles of human and social values and circular
and solidarity economy as an impetus for
transformative agroecology that can lead to food
security and sovereignty are not considered.
1) Embeddedness of Agroecology principles in Policies & strategies

7. Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Strategy (KCSA):
Agroecology principles do overlap and divergent. Of the 10
agroecology principles, resilience, efficiency, diversity and
synergies are clearly articulated in the strategy and
framework. Culture and food traditions, co-creation and
sharing of knowledge, recycling and responsible
governance can be inferred. Principles of human and
social values and circular and solidarity economy as an
impetus for transformative agroecology that can lead to
food security and sovereignty are not considered.
ASDS recognizes Kenya’s agro-
ecological diversity and aims to
improve diversity of food to meet
dietary and nutritional
requirements, increase agro-
biodiversity to include traditional
sources of food and support use of
organic methods for sustainable
food production systems

8. 2. Embeddedness of Agroecology Practices in Policies and
Strategies
• Content analysis of agroecology
practices within the policy documents
• Conservation agriculture
• Agroforestry
• Sustainable land management
• Conservation tillage
• Cultivation of drought-tolerant crops
• Cultivation of indigenous crops
• Integrated soil fertility management
Agroforestry is most mentioned practice

9. Awareness, understanding and acceptance of the Agroecology
approach among stakeholders engaged in the policy making process
• 100% of the respondents reported that the term
‘Agroecology’ is a conflicting, not commonly used word
amongst many stakeholders in Kenya.
• 78% of respondents said that it is interchangeably used
with Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) -
• 44% of respondents said that Agroecology is seen as a
holistic farming process that involves a number of
practices such as soil/ water management, crop
diversification, use of nature/ natural inputs in
crop/livestock production and considers the sustainability
of biodiversity and health of the people.
• 24% of respondents reported that it is an approach that
can help communities adapt to the effects of climate
change while at the same time building their resilience

10. Diverse of opinion among the stakeholders in terms of accepting agroecology
approaches for food production in Kenya
The ministry supports technologies that
give farmers food. We do not call it
agroecology. We support strategies which
ensures farmers grow food. I would like to
support agroecology. But I also have to
support the usage of conventional
fertilizers for maximum yield..Govt Rep
Agroecology is probably the only
option to address climate change in
agriculture as it is a holistic approach
to ecosystem protection…..CSO Rep
Kenyans including farmers and policymakers don’t like to
change easily and so they are stuck at what they know, e.g.,
use of chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides). Therefore,
introducing agroecology to Kenyans implies, you have to first
“uneducated them” so that they are not only thinking about
chemicals and new seeds, but they see things from a different
perspective…Farmer Group Rep

11. Reasons for lack of agroecology policy in Kenya
• Agroecology is relatively a ‘new’ concept and its
principles has not yet been well understood among
the policy makers hence the need to invest more
on research and sensitization programs (84%)
• Agroecology should be part of CSA with a lot of
synergies between them (100%)
• Agroecological practices are being employed by
farmers throughout the country even though they
call it differently. (92%)
• While agroecology might be successfully employed
at a small-scale/local level, it may have limitations
in implementing it at a national scale (42%)

12. Conclusion: Potential Entry points for political support to
scale-up agroecology approaches in Kenya
• Development of agroecology strategy & implementation
plan that is anchored to an existing agricultural policy.
• Inclusion of agroecology in education curriculum at high
school and college/university level.
• Support stronger farmer organizations that can foster
adoption of agroecology practices in different agro-
ecological zones of Kenya.
• Use the devolved County system to integrate
agroecology practices.
• Training of agricultural extension workers on agroecology
• Establish labeling of agroecology products and
commodities

13. Recommendations
§ Agroecology is not clearly understood by different
stakeholders
§ Mainstreaming or alignment of policy processes
related agriculture and climate change towards
agroecology principles and practices.
§ Develop agroecology guidelines to guide and
inform different stakeholders, especially policy
makers.
§ Provide scientific evidence that shows that
agroecology can contribute to increasing food
security and nutrition in Kenya
§ Include agroecology and agriculture in the new
school curriculum and agricultural extension
education.