Programmes and Projects

Goal: To contribute towards resilient livelihoods through sustainable agricultural and environmental practices among smallholder farmers and pastoralists.

Objectives: 

• To strengthen the PELUM Kenya network to advocate for the integration of Agroecology in policy as an effective strategy for food security and resilience building;
• To enhance Agro-enterprise initiatives among SHF &Pastoralists for increased household incomes and adoption of Agroecological practices;
• To enhance the resilience of smallholder farmers and pastoralists to the effects of climate change and environmental degradation;
• The governance, management, and operations of PELUM Kenya Network institutions are functioning and delivering services effectively

Key expected results:

• PELUM Kenya MOs actively advocate for the integration of agroecology as a strategy for food security and resilience building in the National and County agricultural sector and other related sectors policies;
• Agro-enterprise initiatives among SHF/Pastoralists adopting agroecological practices are successfully linked to markets;
• SHF and pastoralists have adopted practices that are climate resilient and counter environmental degradation; and
• The governance, management, and operations of PELUM Kenya network institutions are functioning and delivering services effectively.

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.

Goal: To create a vibrant ecological organic system for enhanced food security and sustainable development in Africa

Objectives: To increase support for ecological organic agriculture in the national production systems within the Eastern Africa region

Key expected results:

• Ecological organic research is mainstreamed into the national agricultural research system.
• EOA curricula are established and implemented in agriculture institutions at all levels and sectors.
• It has improved extension systems responsive to farmers’ needs and demands for information and services in EOA.
• Increased availability and accessibility of information on EOA for use by stakeholders
• Improved access to organic products and markets by smallholder farmers and consumers
• Strengthened partnerships and networks among EOA actors in Eastern Africa.
• Relevant policies and programmes for the promotion of EOA influenced
• Improved institutional capacity and coordination of EOA initiative actors.

The Aberdares Watershed Management Programme is a two-year initiative (January 2024 – December 2025) implemented by PELUM Kenya in partnership with five of its member organizations (SACDEP-Kenya, ICE, OACK, RODI-Kenya, and COSDEP) across the Aberdares ecosystem, covering Murang’a, Kiambu, Nyeri, and Nyandarua counties. The project aims to enhance the resilience of the watershed through the development and advocacy of five key environmental policy frameworks: 

• Wetlands and riparian areas conservation for Muranga and Nyeri Counties, 
• Invasive and alien species management (Muranga County), 
• Natural resources Management policy (Nyandarua County) and an 
• Agroecology policy and bill (focused in Kiambu). 

Through stakeholder engagement, technical support, legislative sensitization, and grassroots advocacy, the programme seeks to strengthen county-level environmental governance, promote sustainable natural resource use, and increase community participation in conservation efforts. The project is funded by Tudor Trust.

Goal: To promote sharing and exchange of farmer-managed seeds/indigenous seeds and knowledge in PELUM Kenya

Objectives:

• To create awareness of the importance of indigenous seeds/farmer-managed seeds, local vegetables, herbs, and spices
• To promote and teach the culture of community sharing to sustainably produce and multiply indigenous/farmers-managed seeds
• To improve interactive networking among Member Organizations (M.O.s), producers, marketers, and consumers

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

Knowledge Hub for Organic Agriculture and Agroecology in Eastern Africa (KHEA) Project is in its second phase of implementation for the 2nd Phase (1st June 2022- 31st January 2025). KHEA Project Phase II 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. Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) is the lead coordinating agency of the project in Eastern Africa with co-hosting arrangement with Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Uganda. The Knowledge Centre for Organic Agriculture and Agroecology (KCOA) is an iniative working to scale organic and agroecological farming in Africa through five regional Knowledge Hubs. Active in 18 countries and supported by over 30 civil society organizations, KCOA offers a Digital Knowledge Platform for sharing insights and connecting practitioners across the continent. 

The project is based on four main action fields namely:

1. 1. Collecting / preparing of knowledge in organic agriculture: Validated technical and methodological knowledge for the promotion of organic agriculture, including processing, is prepared for the context of the participating countries and stakeholder groups.  The Digital Knowledge Platform kcoa-africa.org is  aimed to serve as a resource for extension agents, trainers, policymakers, and researchers to share information with farmers and pastoralists, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange to advance sustainable agriculture.
   2. Dissemination of knowledge to many users: Validated knowledge, strategies and good practices in the field of organic agriculture, adapted to the contexts of the countries participating in the regional knowledge hubs, are disseminated to various target user groups
   3. Networking within agricultural value chains: Key actors in the organic agriculture value chains of the participating countries in the three regions are networked in an exemplary manner for replication
   4. Advocacy & Policy, Collaborate and partner with other EOA stakeholders to lobby and advocate for EOA policies at country level

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.

Funding partner: Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC)

Objective: To contribute toward the promotion of resilient (production) systems and increased food security and income for small and medium-scale farmers in Africa while ensuring environmental sustainability 

Key expected results

• Policies, plans, regulatory frameworks, and programmes that support EOA in Eastern Africa influenced
• Increased awareness and understanding among policymakers and relevant stakeholders on the benefits of EOA
• Increased engagement of a critical mass of policymakers, technocrats, and other relevant stakeholders in dialogues supportive of EOA
• A survey document on the status of EOA legislation and policies in different countries in Eastern Africa developed (Identify constraints, enabling conditions/levers, and opportunities for a change)
• Knowledge of structures and processes in decision-making related to policy formulation, development, and delivery Increased.

Funding Partner: McKnight Foundation through IDEMS

Goal: – An Agroecology (AE) hub that provides tangible and consistent value to a diverse, inclusive Hub CoP whose members contribute to AE transformation for smallholder farmers

Objective : 

• To Provide demand-driven, evidence-based information about relevant AE practices
• To have Farmers who are using AE practices that are successful in their context 
• To bridge gaps between AE science, movement and practice actors
• To have in place local partners who are prepared to assume Hub leadership at the end of the grant cycle

During the year 2023, the project PELUM Kenya worked closely with the AE Hub key officers to undertake field visits, a participatory planning session and two workshops to strengthen the capacities of the targeted IGA-Groups. Further Farmer Research Network (FRN) was set up for upscaling in the Western Kenya Region. 

PELUM Kenya & Island Reach will partner to undertake a series of video productions with the goal of advancing PELUM Kenya and their Member Organizations with agroecology messaging to reach various target users (policy makers, trainers, farming communities etc.)

This project will involve a series of site visits & videography across PELUM Kenya Member Organization sites.The number of videos to be produced and their length, will be determined, along with their structure and content, in collaborations between PELUM Kenya and Island Reach as “Co-Producers” and alongside the guidance and participation of PELUM Kenya partners/members.  It is understood that this specific agroecology relevant content and product creation will develop and refine over the course of this collaboration

Africa Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) is leading the Visibilize4ClimateAction project in partnership with the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), the University of Nairobi, PELUM Kenya, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the University of Oxford, and Loughborough University. The initiative is also implemented in collaboration with the County Governments of Laikipia, Samburu, and Turkana, as well as relevant National ministries. This project is funded by Wellcome.

The Visibilize4ClimateAction project aims to make visible, through research, public and policy engagement, the impacts of climate change on the nutritional status and mental health of vulnerable populations in the East African drylands — spanning arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid zones — to catalyze context-specific climate policy and practice change at scale.  

The project emphasizes agroecology and agroforestry as scalable climate adaptation measures to enhance food security, ecological restoration, and community resilience

Is a collaborative initiative led by Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya (BIBA Kenya) in partnership with PELUM Kenya and Effective IPM Association (EIPMA), Implemented across Kiambu, Murang’a, West Pokot, and Makueni Counties. The project aims to address the climate and environmental impacts of fossil fuel-based agrochemicals by promoting agroecological alternatives. It leverages participatory research and evidence-based advocacy to drive the transformation of food systems, particularly for smallholder farmers, women, and youth.

The objectives of the project include:

• To support the development and implementation of agroecology policy frameworks in West Pokot and Makueni Counties.
  
• To promote the adoption of agroecological practices among smallholder farmers, with a focus on women and youth.
  
• To build knowledge and capacity in participatory research methodologies for co-creating agroecological innovations and informing policy.
  
• To Strengthen partnerships and collaborations at both county and national levels to support agroecology and climate resilience efforts.
  
• To increase the recognition and integration of agroecology in national and global climate change discussions and policies.