Climate change in East Africa
Environmental change and maize innovation pathways in Kenya
Focusing on dryland Kenya and on maize, a socially and economically highly significant staple crop, this project will explore the dynamics of farming system change in areas affected by increased rainfall variability due to climate change.
Explainer: why is maize so important?
- Drought resistance for staple crops is the holy grail of plant breeding in the developing world, particularly in Africa, where limited irrigation constrains agricultural growth. This challenge becomes even more acute with the prospect of greater variability in rainfall patterns as a result of environmental change.
- Environmental dynamics determining soil moisture thus have major impacts on agricultural incomes and food security in dryland farming areas, and are a key factor in influencing livelihoods and pathways into and out of poverty.
This project will explore the diverse ways that farmers (wealthy and poor, male and female) and national and global agricultural researchers frame and respond to emergent environmental challenges, whether through local crop, soil and water adaptations or engineering drought-resistant maize strains.
The project will address the interactions with human health, asking how maize-led land use changes have been shaped by and are shaping disease ecologies, whether through the emergence and spread of disease vectors or the impact of HIV/AIDS on household labour and gender relations.
Asking which innovation pathways are taken up and which are left aside, as shaped by political and institutional processes, the project will aim to open up consideration of alternative pathways that meet poorer farmers' Sustainability goals amidst complex and dynamic ecologies and livelihood systems.
STEPS members working on this project
- John Thompson Convenor
- Sally Brooks Research Officer
- Adrian Ely Research Fellow
- Hayley McGregor Research Fellow
STEPS partners on this project
- African Centre for Technology Studies, Nairobi, Kenya (ACTS)
Sereh Nderitu, ACTS - Centre for African Bio-Entrepreneurship, Nairobi, Kenya (CABE)
Hannington Odame Executive Director, CABE - Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, Egerton University, Nairobi, Kenya
Betty Kibaara Research Fellow, Tegemeo Institute
Related Research and events
- STEPS briefing 4: Agri-food System Dynamics for Sustainability (pdf 273kb)
- Farmer First Revisited
- Salzberg Seminar. A "Green Revolution" in Africa: What Framework for Success? 3-7 May 2008
- Reframing Resilience The STEPS Centre's theme this year is resilience; engaging with resilience thinking and exploring practical implications for policy in agriculture, water, peri-urban dynamics, epidemics and regulation.
- Future Agricultures Consortium
- Veterinary Science, Transboundary Animal Diseases and Markets: the case of foot-and-mouth disease in southern Africa
- Avian 'flu: the politics and policy processes of a global response
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Sorghum seedling struggles to grow / Ami Vitale / Panos |
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