Professionals push for transformative agricultural systems to boost food security

Players in the agriculture sector have called for synergies to transform agricultural systems and enhance food security in the country.

The professionals argue that stronger agricultural systems are critical to sustainable development of the sector.

David Kersting, project manager at German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), says countries in Sub-Saharan Africa must strive to embrace agroecological approaches as a way of ensuring resilience in their agri-food production systems in the wake of constant changing weather patterns.

Kersting says recent global climate change effects have triggered huge threats to food security in the region and also contributed to the loss of biodiversity and nutrition.

Consequently, he states that the sector has become vulnerable to climate shocks and long term weather changes, leading to dwindling food production in recent times. This, he says calls for renewed efforts towards implementation of new agricultural approaches to deal with the erratic weather pattern challenges.

“Over the recent years we have witnessed notable crises of climate change and global disruptions of fertiliser markets, which have largely affected the agricultural sector. This clearly shows how the agriculture systems are very vulnerable to sudden climatic changes,” he explains.

Kersting, who spoke at the agroecology leadership conference in Kisumu town recently, said his organisation is implementing a project dubbed ProSilience in Western Kenya, which aims to promote agro-ecological transformation of the agriculture and food systems.

The project undertaken in Siaya, Kakamega and Bungoma counties is part of the about Sh292 million agricultural joint investment by the German government and European Union to support change in agricultural systems in Kenya.

He says working with about 5,000 smallholder farmers in Western, the consortium is implementing agroecological approaches that seek to conserve soil and rehabilitate infertile soil through climate-smart practices.

In the programme, he says they are leveraging on the practices, such as agroforestry, soil and water conservation as some of tools to promote smart farming hence enhancing agricultural productivity. “The idea is to make our food systems more resilient so that climate change shocks and trends do not leave the farmers and consumers largely affected,” said Kersting.

It is expected that the one year agroecology academy initiative would jointly foster transformation in the agricultural sector of the project implementing countries over a period of time.