Climate change is challenging agricultural productivity, especially in Africa. Adoption of improved or diverse seed varieties is a promising strategy to achieve increased yields, support food security and reduce poverty under climate change in East Africa. However, rigorous impact evaluations linking the contributions of improved seeds to the welfare of households have been limited. This paper evaluates the impact of diversified seed systems on farm household production, sales, income, consumption and seed storage in Kenya and Uganda. It applies four-cell analysis to explore the intra-specific diversity of crops within farming systems, using primary data obtained from a random sampling of 207 treatment households and 87 control households. Propensity score matching was used to investigate the relationship between adoption of improved seeds and changes in production, sales, income, consumption, seed storage and food security. Econometric results indicate that treatment households using improved seeds saw a significant positive impact on income from bean seed sales, sorghum and millet consumption, bean livestock feed and maize and millet seed stored. We conclude that increasing seed diversity helps farmers cope with climate change and increases productivity, food availability, incomes and food security. Partnerships among seed improvement stakeholders need to be enhanced to ensure a continued supply of appropriate seeds to farmers.
Research on and disseminating Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) practices has led to increased awareness and farmers' capacity to develop resilient agricultural production systems for sustainable livelihoods and food security while addressing climate change adaptation and mitigation. Thus, there is a potential in gaining valuable insight into how Irish potato smallholder farmers should respond to current and future climate risks. However, studies exploring and linking expert opinion on synergies and trade-offs in adapting the CSA practices are limited. This study integrated qualitative and quantitative data from 22 expert surveys and semistructured questionnaires to answer the following objectives: 1) Which top five CSA practices are currently used by Irish potato farmers and which ones are preferred by experts in response to climate change adaptation in Kenya? 2) How do the selected CSA practices perform in Irish potato farming in Kenya? 3) Which synergies and trade-offs occur upon implementation of these CSA practices? The study found that CSA practices most preferred by both experts and farmers are improved crop varieties, efficient use of agrochemicals, early land preparation, diversified crop production, efficient use of inorganic fertilizer, irrigation and changing planting dates. These selected CSA practices indicated the productivity pillar to be the best performing CSA pillar synergistically while trade-offs to occur across CSA pillars. These findings can inform different potato value chain stakeholders on the synergies and trade-off dynamics associated with adopting CSA practices for climate
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