World Bank Investment in Kenya Climate-Smart Agriculture

The World Bank has recently approved a $250 million USD investment to the Climate-Smart Agriculture Project in Kenya. The main goal of the project is to “increase agricultural productivity and build resilience to climate change risks for smallholder farming and pastoral communities.” The secondary goal of the project is to create a crisis response system for said stakeholders.

There are five major components to the project: upscaling climate-smart agricultural practice; strengthening climate-smart agriculture research; supporting agro-weather, market, climate, and advisory services; project coordination; and management. In order to build resilience and increase agricultural productivity, the project will upscale finance interventions, develop sustainable seen production and distribution, and improve agrometeorological forecasting and information distribution to farmers.

The Climate-Smart Agriculture project has the capacity to have a profound impact on Kenya. The country is incredibly vulnerable to crises from extreme weather due to the reliance on climate-sensitive natural resources. The agriculture sector is a major contributor to the national GDP, which also leaves Kenya’s economy weak during periods of flooding or drought. The investment comes at a time when Kenya has been hit by major drought and approximately 3.4 million people are in need of food aid and clean water.

As weather patterns become more extreme and unpredictable, the main goal of the project is to increase agricultural productivity and build resilience to climate change risks for smallholder farming and pastoral communities through upscaling finance interventions, developing sustainable seed production and distribution, and improving forecasting and information distribution to farmers.

The Aid & International Development Forum will host the Climate Smart Agriculture Congress on 6-7 March 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya. The congress will look into technological innovations, capacity building, innovative financing, partnerships and the use of big data to advance climate-smart agriculture practices across East Africa. Hear from expert speakers including Gabriel Rugalema, Representative of the FAO Kenya, Noelle Obrien, Team Leader of the Finance Innovation for Climate Change Fund, Richard Munang, Regional Climate Change Coordinator at the UNEP and Berber Kramer, Research Fellow of the International Food Policy Research Institute amongst others.

To learn more about the Climate Smart Agriculture Congress, visit the website or email Alina O’Keeffe, Head of Marketing, Aid & International Development Forum at marketing@aidforum.org