Credit and know-how boost farm incomes. Validated RNRRS Output.
Abstract
This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.
Summary for Project title: R7962: Linking soil fertility and improved cropping strategies to development interventions.
Farm households in the highlands of western Kenya are improving their livelihoods using a community credit scheme and a set of decision-support tools. Depleted soils, due to continuous maize cropping, together with Striga infestation, have trapped farmers in a cycle of low yields and poor soil fertility. To diversify into higher value crops on their limited land, households must intensify maize production. The credit scheme lets farmers invest in fertilisers, while the decision support tools help borrowers with land management questions. Although developed in Kenya, these tools are applicable to many areas of Africa dominated by poor, food-deficient, semi-subsistence farm households. In Kenya, the tools are promoted by a World Bank-funded project, and they have also been introduced in Uganda.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts On Poverty, Environmental Impact. Attached PDF (12 pp.) taken from the CD.
Citation
NRSP16, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 114.