This is a presentation on what ICRISAT is doing in Kenya to promote utilization of more nutritious foods with the aim of diversifying diets and creating a demand pull for nutritious drought tolerant crops - sorghum, millets, pigeonpea, greengrams, groundnuts and cowpeas.

1. Diversifying diets and driving
commercialization of dryland cereals
and legumes in Kenya
Siambi M, Wangari C, Mwema C, Cheserek M, and Nungo R,

2. To increase utilization of and stimulating
demand for dryland cereals and legumes,
and thus improve not only nutrition
outcomes but also increase incomes for
smallholder marginal farmers
Objective

3. Smart Food Kenya Partners

4. Rebranding GLDC as smart
food (particularly as nutritious
and climate smart)
1 Multi-sectoral partnership –
departments of health,
agriculture and education
- Community health
volunteers (departments of
health structure)
- Lead farmers (through
agricultural extension
workers)
- ECD teachers (department
of education)
Approach
2

5. Working with processors to
develop and promote a
range of affordable and
innovative smart food
products (processed and
packaged product) to meet
the demands of the urban
consumer.
Approach
3

6. Train over 10,000 men and
women on agri-nutrition and
sensitize them on Smart
Foods
Reach over 100,000
households with nutrition and
create awareness on Smart
Foods
Increase dietary diversity
scores of women and children
Targets
1
2
3
Increase awareness and consumption
of dryland cereals and legumes
4

7. Production for household consumption (activities around encouraging farmers to
produce and reserve for household consumption – nutrition education, cooking classes,
door to door sensitization activities, awareness events)
Production for income (activities around building markets)
Women empowerment (training on energy saving technologies – save time and energy
taking care of self and family
Impact Pathway
1
2
3

8. Trained over 8,000 men and women through 2-day workshops.
Over 6,000 women farmers have been trained through participatory cooking classes,
where they were introduced to new recipes and energy efficient innovations.
Over 80,000 households have been reached with nutrition messages through a variety of
behavior change communications activities.
Over 50,000 children below 5 years have been reached with nutrition messages through
their parents.
About 800,000 Kenyans reached with messages to increase knowledge, change
attitudes and consumption behavior through the Smart Food TV show.
Key Achievements
1
2
3
4
5

13. Characterization of varieties and product development (partnership with Makerere)
Key Achievements
6

15. Four studies conducted:
- KAP assessment (FGDs with mothers)
- Household survey – Dietary Diversity (Baseline -2016 and Midline - 2017)
- Urban Consumer survey
- Photovoice study
Key Achievements
7

16. - Conducted in 5 out of 6 counties with mothers of children under 5 years
- Aimed to understand consumption patterns and the issues around utilization of the smart foods.
- Results were used to identify the training needs for the community and inform the project strategy.
Some of reasons given for low utilization include:
- Lack of knowledge on food preparation (particularly young mothers)
- Myths and negative perceptions – e.g
o Groundnuts are only good for men (increase libido) and therefore not good for children
o Sorghum causes constipation
o Pearl millet is for poor people
o Pigeonpea is used for fencing the compound and not for food
o Pigeonpea causes mental disorder - Kichaa
KAP Assessment

17. Baseline conducted in 2016 and Midline in 2017 – results show positive increase on DDS
Household survey – dietary diversity assessment

18. Commercialization levels increased from the year 2016 to 2017.
Household survey – commercialization of smart food
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Finger Millet Groundnut Pearl Millet Pigeon pea Sorghum Cowpea Green grams
Fig. 4.2: Average sales of smart food crops in 6 counties
Baseline survey Midline survey

19. - Used social media
- A structured questionnaire was sent out using a key influencer on Facebook
- Total respondents =2, 628 – largely urban dwellers
- Was a strategy to gauge awareness, perception and utilization levels of sorghum,
millets and legumes
Results
- Pearl millet was the least consumed, followed by sorghum.
- Awareness levels and consumption of legumes particularly groundnuts and greengrams was
higher compared to dryland cereals
- Consumption was higher among respondents with higher levels of education
Urban consumer survey

20. Photovoice study - impact of smart food activities
A photo voice methodology was used to
assess the impact of Smart Food activities in
Tharaka Nithi county.
The study showed that the dietary diversity
scores for the household, for women of
reproductive age and children were higher
for the treatment area.
Treatment Control
Children DDS 6 4
Women DDS 5.5 3.7

22. 2018 Planned Activities
• Nutrition education workshops targeting farmers and representatives of key local institutions –
hospitals, schools, orphanages.
• Capacity building workshops with processors with the aim to introduce them to new products
developed in partnership with Makerere University.
• Community radio programs.
• Awareness events in schools and market centers.
• Documentation of AVCD project success stories

23. For more about Smart Food Kenya activities,
please follow us on:
@smartfoodkenya #SmartFood

24. Thank You