Nakuru Irrigation Acceleration Platform (Iap) & Climate & Water Smart Agriculture Centre Final Technical Report Period: 1st March – 15th November 2019

Abstract

Executive Summary:

Nakuru County is beautiful and an important water conservation area as it lies at the center of the rift valley in Kenya. It has the Aberdare escarpment on the east and Mau escarpment on the west which are natural water harvesting landscapes. Despite its great potential for water conservation and irrigation use, little is being done as evidenced by the expanding gulleys, rising water levels in Lake Nakuru and Elementaita which disrupts the saline ecosystem for flamingoes and other animals. This is a serious problem as the water becomes saline and cannot be used for domestic or irrigation. Yet this water can be easily harvested and used for irrigation. By 2015, only 13.5% of the 1.342 million ha potential irrigable land had been developed in Kenya (National Irrigation Policy, 2017). Hence the demand for farmer- led and market based irrigation development. In January 2017, the Nakuru Irrigation Platform (IAP) was formed by stakeholders of the irrigated value chain in Nakuru County to improve the irrigated agriculture sector. The IAP consisted of small and medium size farmers and their organizations, private sector, the County Government and state agencies and research and academic institutions. IAP received financial and technical support from the Smart Water for Agriculture (SWA) program and members. The SWA program was implemented by a consortium of five organizations – SNV Kenya, Meta Meta, Practica, Aqua for All and KIT funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is hosted by Egerton University, Njoro, Kenya under the coordination of Prof. Anthony Kibe. The platform facilitator is Rahab Ngumba. Part I of this report presents the IAP report for the past three years. The IAP used various forums and events to create awareness, demonstrate and support farmers and partners in their efforts to improve conservation and water and energy (Solar) use efficiency while increasing productivity and incomes. In total the IAP reached over 6,000 farmers directly. Part II of this report presents the CaWSA-Centre results for year 1. To scale up the Successes and ensure sustainability of the IAP’s work, Egerton University and partners created the Climate and Water Smart Agriculture (CaWSA) – Centre in January 2019. The CaWSA- Centre is a Centre of excellence for Community, Student and Industry engaged learning. It carries out research, training, outreach work and publishes and disseminates knowledge. Although the SWA funding is ending in December 2019, the IAP host and partners are confident that the work of the platform will continue. Most of the private sector partners have committed to continue co-funding IAP activities. The County Government has demonstrated its commitment by participating in all the events, co-financing some activities and recently appointed an irrigation focal person with an agribusiness background. The formation and support of Farmer Cooperative Unions in strategic value chains – potatoes, apiculture, dairy and poultry through the NALIG (World Bank) project will help strengthen input and output market systems and increase the voice of farmers. The cooperative model was tested as strategy for hosting farmer field days and creating access to inputs and markets and proved more efficient that working with farmer groups. We supported eight model farmers who will continue to demonstrate the impact of using Smart Water Solutions (SWS). The sections below highlights the achievements, sustainability strategies, challenges and recommendations and way forward for Nakuru IAP and CaWSA-Centre.