Venue : Panafric Hotel
Date : 17th December 2014
Climate change is currently one of the major challenges facing the world. This is particularly so for Sub-Saharan Africa, which has minimal capacity to build resilience against its effects. Climate variability and change and associated droughts and floods directly affect agricultural production and food security given that most of the population in Africa lives in the rural areas and relies mainly on rain-fed agriculture for its livelihood. Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, Egerton University conducted studies on: (i) effects of climate change on household livelihoods, mainly focusing on agricultural income, fertilizer use and diversification, and (ii) uptake of crop insurance among small-scale farmers in Kenya. Assessment of crop insurance uptake was necessary given the role that it plays in providing a mechanism of sharing and transferring residual weather-related risks that traditional risk management measures are unable to handle. It is in the light of this that the Institute organized a workshop where key findings were presented and discussed. The workshop drew participants from a wide spectrum of stakeholders including relevant government ministries, mainly Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Representatives from County governments (Machakos, Embu, Laikipia), Kenya Meteorological Services (KMS), Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise (ACRE) - Kilimo Salama, the private sector, farmers and farmer groups/organizations, University of Nairobi and Egerton University- Tegemeo Institute, among others.
