Kenya is in many ways the ‘poster child’ for Africa's new Green Revolution, with numerous public‐private partnerships promoting agricultural innovation and rural entrepreneurship through a growing network of agro‐dealers. Despite numerous claims that the agro‐dealer model offers the best approach for delivering new seeds and other modern technologies to the country's small producers, this article highlights how reality on the ground has yet to match expectations. Drawing on surveys of agro‐dealers in two contrasting agricultural districts and interviews with key informants, it shows how, despite considerable investment by a range of public and private actors, agro‐dealers remain spread unevenly across the country and are inevitably concentrated in the higher potential agricultural areas. The changing structure of the Kenyan seed industry and the entry of large multinational and philanthropic players – who are focusing mainly on delivery of hybrid maize and fertilisers – are shifting this dynamic further. This approach is acting to narrow the choice of seeds and crop types to farmers in all areas.

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Climate change is a significant threat to agriculture-related livelihoods, and its impacts amplify prevailing gender inequalities. Climate information services (CIS) are crucial enablers in adapting to climate change and managing climate-related risks by smallholder farmers. Even though various gender groups have distinct preferences, understandings, and uses of CIS, which affect adaptation decisions differently, there is little research on gender perspectives of CIS. This study employs a novel intra-household survey of 156 married couples to evaluate the gender-differentiated effects of CIS access on the adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies in Kenya. The findings reveal gender differences in access to CIS, with husbands having significantly more access to early warning systems and advisory services on adaptation. In contrast, wives had better access to weather forecasts. About 38% of wives perceived that CIS meets their needs, compared to 30% of husbands. As for CIS dissemination pathways, husbands preferred extension officers, print media, television, and local leaders, whereas wives preferred radio and social groups. Recursive bivariate probit analysis shows that trust in CIS, a bundle of CIS dissemination pathways, access to credit, and membership in a mixed-gender social group, affected access to CIS for both genders. Access to early warning systems and advisory services positively affected decisions to adopt CSA by both genders. Still, access to seasonal forecasts influenced husbands’ decisions to adopt CSA but not wives. Besides, there were gender differences in how CIS affected each CSA technology based on gendered access to resources and roles and responsibilities in a household. It is necessary to disseminate CIS through gender-sensitive channels that can satisfy the needs and preferences of different gender groups to encourage the adoption of climate-smart technologies. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10584-022-03445-5.