Supermarkets have expanded rapidly in SADC during

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Climate-change and variability (CC&V) exerts multiple stresses on agriculture production. It negatively impacts gender-cadres especially in Kenya's arid and semi-arid lands that occupy 89% (area), 36% (population), 70% (livestock), and 90% (wildlife). Smallholders with limited resources endowments have adopted climate-smart agriculture technologies, which are viewed as a panacea to CC&V in addressing interlinked food-security challenges. This paper reports baseline survey results on 149 randomly selected households in Kalii watershed. Primary and secondary data were collected in March 2015. Data-analyses encompassed regressions, descriptive statistics and gender-analysis. Local perceptions/results revealed precipitations downwardtrend and an upward-trend of temperatures, and other elements, and outcomes of CC&V. Gender and innovations are statistically significant at (p<0.05). Decision-making on assets' and proceeds' control and use, was men's domain. Invariably, gender and climate-smart agriculture innovations are critical in food and nutrition security strategy under CC&V.

This study uses a choice experiment method to quantify farmers' valuation of key bean variety attributes under different climatic conditions of Kenya and assess their willingness to pay or accept for changes in those attributes. The study also tests for the gender related heterogeneity in attribute preferences at individual and household level while accounting for differences in production scenarios to understand when and where men and women preferences begin to diverge or converge. The key common bean attributes were: yield, tolerance to environmental stresses (intermittent drought and root rot), early maturing, taste and reduced cooking time. Choice data was collected from random selected 504 households from purposively selected districts of high drought prone areas and high rainfall parts of Kenya. A random parameter logit model with interactions that accounts for random heterogeneity and conditional heterogeneity was used to derive unbiased estimates. Results indicate that all attributes are important but farmer derive higher utility from changes in consumption and post-harvest attributes compared to those in production attributes. Farmer valuation of the changes in yield, tolerance to environmental stresses and cooking time are heterogeneous, partly explained by size of the household, gender, risk aversion and market access. Men generally are likely to derive higher values from improvements in these attributes than women. Results have important implications for breeding priority setting, seed dissemination and integration of gender into bean improvement research.

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Common Bean is an important pulse crop in Kenya. The yields of common beans in Kenya have been low and declining. The decline in Common Bean yields has been due to biotic and abiotic stresses. Research was carried out to determine factors that influenced the adoption of Integrated Pests and Disease Management technologies in Bungoma and Machakos counties, Kenya. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to randomly sample 502 smallholder farmers in Bungoma and Machakos counties. Primary data were collected from sampled farmers by carrying out face to face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Logistic regression using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 20 Software. Descriptive statistics results showed that farmers in the two study sites used both modern and indigenous technical knowledge (ITK) to control pests and diseases on their bean crops and produce. The Logistic regression results showed that five factors significantly influenced the choice of IPM technologies by farmers. These were: region, level of education of the household head, access to extension services, household food security status and availability of markets for beans.  Access to extension and region were highly significant at 1% significance level. To achieve high yields the factor that significantly increased adoption of IPM in bean production such as access to extension should be enhanced.

Since 2010, six research organizations in the region have implemented a regional project that sought to combat food insecurity, poverty and climate change by up-scaling Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies across farms and landscapes using the Climate Smart Landscape (CSL) approach. Several CSA technologies were evaluated and promoted across landscapes using this approach with remarkable success. Maize yields in Kenya rose from 0.5 to 3.2 t ha-1 , resulting in over 90% of the watershed communities being food secure. In Madagascar, rice yields increased from 2 to 4 t ha-1 whilst onion yields increased from 10 to 25 t ha-1 , resulting in watershed communities being 60% food-secure. In Eritrea, sorghum yields increased from 0.6 to 2 t ha-1. Farmers in Ethiopia earned US$10,749 from the sale of pasture whilst in Madagascar, watershed communities earned additional income of about US$2500/ha/year from the sale of onions and potatoes during off-season. Adoption levels of various CSA technologies rose from less than 30% to over 100% across the participating countries, resulting in rehabilitation of huge tracts of degraded land. In a nutshell, the potential for CSL in the region is huge and if exploited could significantly improve our economies, lives and environment.