Programmes and Projects

The fourth phase of PENELI aims at contributing towards resilient livelihoods through sustainable agricultural and environmental practices among smallholder farmers and pastoralists in Kenya. Seed Savers Network is a key partner in the PENELI IV project and is involved in implementation of seed sovereignty focused interventions

The Programme has four main objectives:

1. To strengthen the institutional capacity of PELUM Kenya network
2. To promote integration of Agroecology in policy spaces as an effective strategy for food security and resilience building
3. To enhance agroenterprise initiatives among SHF for increased household incomes and adoption of agro-ecological practices
4. To enhance resilience of small holder farmers and pastoralists on the effects of climate change and environmental degradation
5. To empower women and youth to   actively engage in leadership and  agroecological practice

Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative is an African led initiative aimed at promoting organic farming in Africa, as a response to the African Heads of States Decision EX.CL/Dec.621 (XVII) on Organic Farming that was made following the report of the Conference of Ministers of Agriculture held in Lilongwe, Malawi in 2010.

The initiative is being implemented in six interrelated Pillars that complement each other in addressing different facets of ecological organic farming.

The Initiative has been under implementation since the year 2012. PELUM Kenya is in charge of implementation of Pillars 1, 3, 4 and 6 in Kenya on Research, Training and Extension (RTE) though SACDEP; Value Chain and Market Development (VCD) through KOAN; Networking and Partnerships (N&P) through KOAN; and Institutional Capacity Development (ICD) by PELUM Kenya, respectively.

PELUM Kenya hosts the Eastern African Regional Secretariat and is Lead Coordinating Organization. PELUM Kenya is a member of the National Steering Committee, Regional Steering Committee and the Continental Steering Committee.

The project is being implemented in Aberdare’s forest catchment which falls within PELUM Kenya’s Nairobi and Central Networking zones and particularly in Kiambu and Murang’a Counties. PELUM Kenya is coordinating the implementation of this project in the Aberdare Forest Reserve and is working directly with five of its member organizations namely: SACDEP-Kenya, ICE, OACK, RODI-Kenya and COSDEP. The project aims at promoting diverisfication of livelihoods among tea farming communities of Kiambu and Murangá while at the same time promoting issues related to water governance.

The aim of the project is to complement the efforts of Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOAI) in advocacy for change in policies, programs and investments. The specific goal for the project is to create awareness and better understanding among policymakers (and also practitioners, technocrats and development partners) for the benefits of Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) and stimulate discussion and debate among them about EOA and health (ecosystem, human, animal). The project is implemented in partnership with BioVision Africa Trust (BVAT)

Promoting sustainable agriculture and Marketing through Youth Involvement (PSAMY) project aims at increasing youths’ participation in sustainable agriculture and agricultural and market value chains through knowledge and cultural exchanges between Kenyan and Zimbabwean youth. The focus is  sustainable agriculture and marketing. It is acknowledged, however, that there are many challenges associated with engaging youth in agriculture. Agriculture remains unattractive to most youth. This is exacerbated by perception of agriculture as a career of last resort, one of drudgery and low monetary benefits. Information on access to markets, factors of production including land and financing remain extremely limited hindering meaningful and adequate engagement of youth in agriculture in both countries.

Notwithstanding the noted challenges, there are vast opportunities to be realized through engaging the youth in agriculture. To this end, the 2014 Malabo Declaration, includes specific targets on youth engagement in agriculture, the creation of jobs in the agriculture value chains and the support and facilitation of preferential entry and participation for women and youths in gainful and attractive agribusiness opportunities.

Recognizing the presence of COVID 19 pandemic in countries, the participants and partners in PSAMY will leverage on technology and use digital tools to exchange knowledge in sustainable agriculture and marketing.

The programme will enhance the partnerships and collaborative arrangements between PELUM and FACHIG, with the participants, the farmers. The participants will transfer the knowledge and skills to the member organisation, farmers groups and youths. The participants in the programme will train other staff members and lead farmers in order to create a broader institutional memory.

The project is funded by Home | Norec

PSAMY Project

The Knowledge Hub for Organic Agriculture in Eastern Africa is part of the initiative by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through its executing agency GIZ to support a network of regional knowledge hubs for organic farming in Africa. The goal of the project is to ensure that Ecological Organic Agriculture is integrated into the Eastern Africa agricultural systems. The project is coordinated by Biovision Africa Trust (BVAT) and PELUM Uganda in Eastern Africa. PELUM Kenya is the Country Implementing Partner in Kenya

The project involves the following strategies:

1. Integrated Knowledge Management Systems Strategy (IKMS)
   The IKMS of the hub involves collecting, adapting and validating knowledge and ensuring that it is made widely available in friendly formats for different target groups along value chains in the region.
2. Dissemination & Entrepreneurship Strategy
   Development of a holistic, context specific and gender sensitive extension system for knowledge sharing with various target groups along the value chain based on the target groups’ needs and constraints. This is intended to create a multiplier effect in reach at the target group level and impact along value chains by leveraging on EOA networks and projcts and other initiatives.
3. Market Systems Development and Networking Strategy
   This focuses on networking and facilitating market linkages for creating incomes, providing services and improving livelihoods farm households and other community members.

AWOLA initiative focuses on enhancing the leadership capabilities of seasoned and emerging women in agroecology for effective decision making and participation in agroecology. Strengthening the role of women leadership in agroecology will bring an impact to the field of agroecology. The initiative will empower the emerging women leaders to enable them to join the seasoned cluster of women. The initiative will also utilize the seasoned women leaders to empower the emerging women leaders in to excellent leadership. AWOLA will also ensure that emerging women with leadership potential who have not had a chance to be in leadership opportunities are well equipped with skills that place them in better place in terms of becoming future leaders while leadership opportunities emerge.

The end goal is to have more seasoned women leaders in various agroecology institutions in Africa now and in the future. The target women leaders will be from agroecology institutions including CBOs, networks and NGOs. The subject of interest will not be on technical skills on agroecology but on leadership aspects such as negotiation skills, governance etc. for a start, three countries in Africa (Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda will be targeted. The project will be scaled up in other Countries after piloting in the three Countries.

Overall Objective 

To inspire, mentor, nature and fast track the leadership development of African women in Agroecology.

The overall objective of ASAALI is “agroforestry and sustainable agriculture are adopted in policy documents and implemented at the county, national and global levels for improved climate resilient livelihoods among smallholder farmers”. Contributing to this overall objective are three outcomes. These are

1. Increased budget allocation for sustainable agriculture practices by county and national governments,
2. Regulation for standard unit of measure for key farm produce are developed, adopted and implemented for improved fairness in marketing, and
3. Agroforestry and sustainable agriculture are adopted in policy documents at local and global levels to enhance attainment of the right to food.

Attainment of these outcomes will be aided by three key outputs, which include Improved capacity of core partners to advocate for budgetary allocation towards sustainable agriculture, Improved capacity of core partners to advocate for standard unit of measure for key farm produce by small holder farmers and enhanced policy dialogues about agroforestry and sustainable agriculture at local and global levels.

To attain the above results, the project will enhance the capacity of core partners in advocacy and policy influencing, media engagement for local to global advocacy actions, organise key events during celebration of the World Environmental Day, Soil Day and World Food Day, support farmers and core partner participation in decision making as well as hold dialogues with policy makers. The project aims impacting the lives of 29945 direct beneficiaries with 11,146 men and 18,799 females. Gender and youth will be a key consideration in all activities. Further, the project will be reaching 1,000,138 indirect beneficiaries. The project is in tandem with PELUM Kenya strategic plan (2021-2025), outcome 2.1 of ALIVE program, Big Four Agenda, and Sustainable Development Goals 1,2,5, 13& 15.

The overall objective of PAK is “Sustainability of food systems in Kenya and beyond is increased through coherent policies and favourable institutional frameworks that enable food systems transformation.

Contributing to this overall objective are two outcomes; These are

1. Horizontal (across sectors) and vertical (across scales) policy coherence in Kenya is increased resulting in enhanced support for agroecology and
2. Food system actors in Kenya have increasingly equitable agency in policy development processes. Attainment of these outcomes will be aided by 3 key outputs, which include: multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) at County and national level established or strengthened, Enhanced coordination and information flow across sectors (e.g., agriculture, environment, health, economy) and scales on food system related policy processes and small-scale farmers, women and youth groups are empowered and capacitated on effective engagement in policy processes.

To project approach aims at creating a pool of policy makers at the national and county level and identify a few individuals who will act as policy champions to push for support of agroecology , peer to peer learning, learning exchanges at the county, national and regional levels, strengthening and establishment of Multi Stakeholder Platforms (MSP) to support agroecology policy processes at the national and in 3 counties as well as supporting small scale farmers, women and youth participation in policy processes. Gender and youth will be a key consideration in all activities. Further, the project will be reaching annually reach 415 women and 385 men and 2490 women and 2310 men indirect beneficiaries.

The overall objective of this project is promote agro-ecology and inclusive water Governance in Lari Ward, Kiambu County, which are part of the Aberdare Ecosystem and the Athi river watershed, Kenya. the project is implemented in partnership with ICE Kenya and MCDI

Is a global Campaign that is held by partners in many parts of the world to spontaneously to promote green consumerism through profiling sustainable organic production and consumption during the month of October.

The project is implemented in partnership with Manor House Agricultural Centre. The project focuses on engaging farmers and their supporters with evidence based agroecological practices while building the evidence base by investigating other practices using farmer research network approaches.