Presentation "Getting Technologies into Use: Adoption of Climate-Smart Practices in Nyando, Kenya" by Ruth Meinzen-Dick, IFPRI. Presented at Food Security in a World of Growing Natural Resource Scarcity event on February 12, 2014.

1. Getting Technologies into Use:
Adoption of “Climate-Smart Practices”
in Nyando, Kenya
Food Security in a World of Changing Climate and Natural
Resource Scarcity: The Role of Agricultural Technologies
February 12, 2014
Ruth Meinzen-Dick
Photo: K. Trautmann

2. • Production Systems in
Nyando:
– Maize
– Sorghum
– Sugarcane
– Local, crossbreed, and dairy
livestock
• Largely subsistence farms
• Challenges:
– Soil erosion, declining soil
fertility, drought stress, and
flooding
– High poverty rates, labor
shortages, low productivity,
and poor health/nutritional
status
Who is using Climate-Smart Practices?
Photos K. Troutmann, V.
Atakos, K. Troutmann

3. • Despite years of
promotion, low
adoption of
agroforestry
• Relatively high adoption
of high yield varieties,
but extremely low for
stress tolerant
Low Adoption of CSA practices….
Photo: K. Troutmann

4. • Extension and promotion efforts
not reaching all respondents
• Gender is often a significant
variable for awareness
• Other factors affecting
awareness: education, spousal
awareness, innovative/traditional
motivations, access to different
sources of information
But, Adoption starts with Awareness
Photo: K. Troutmann

5. • After accounting for
awareness, does not
seem that gender itself is
a constraint
• Other variables
considered: impacts of
shocks, female decision
making, tenure security,
coordination, access to
weather forecasting,
access to credit
• No single clear story of
what increases adoption
Do Women Adopt Less than Men?

6. Adoption: More than an Individual Decision
Time
Short Long
S
p
a
c
e
Farm
Com-
munity
Nation
Property Rights
C
o
o
r
d
i
n
a
t
i
o
n
State
CollectiveAction
Forests
Watershed
management
Terracing
New seeds AgroforestrySoil Carbon
Integrated
Pest
Management
Irrigation
Seed
Systems
Group

7. • It’s complicated and
depends on the
technologies
• Role of credit,
information sources,
land tenure, collective
action
• Past experiences
suggest that many
institutional variables
are important
CSA Adoption and Awareness in
Nyando
Photos: K. Troutmann

8. Conclusions
Technology adoption depends on context: social and institutional, not just
biophysical
Need to continue paying attention to effective and efficient ways of reaching
farmers (women as well as men) and to encourage the adoption of these
technologies
Photos: V. Atakos