You’ve heard it before, and you’ll hear it again: a sustainable and resilient food system is the ultimate goal to safeguard a flourishing future for people and planet. As Enviu, we began realizing this, three years ago focusing solely on one key issue: post-harvest loss. Centred around social entrepreneurship, we built a sustainable business ecosystem that professionalized value chains by eliminating waste, addressing inefficiencies, and sharing value. This has been the secret sauce that has enabled smallholder farmers to receive a stable and increased income.
We’ve only solved a part of the puzzle, farmers are the most vulnerable when experiencing socio-economic shocks brought about by climate change and land degradation. Human-induced activities such as over-cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation, and urbanization coupled with extreme weather patterns like drought and floods have led to the decline of Kenya’s soil fertility and biodiversity.
This is what led us to launch our new program with IKEA Foundation to build an ecosystem of businesses that will sustainably transition over 10,000 farmers into adopting regenerative practices. The ventures we build, will form the foundation of a flourishing agricultural sector where farmers are transitioned at scale and ultimately made more climate resilient.
Regenerative Agriculture: Not Just Another Buzzword
The term, ‘regenerative agriculture’ goes beyond being a popular buzzword used at every climate event, it’s about the hope that even though we can’t change the past, we can forge a sustainable and greener future that benefits our environment and regenerates the health and vitality of soils everywhere.
Intensive agriculture, livestock production pressures, and the disruption of rainfall patterns have brought a bleak backdrop to Kenya’s farming communities and lands that were once lush are now bare with loss of biodiversity, and low yields; all a familiar narrative to today’s smallholder farmer.
If we don’t address the crisis, Kenya faces higher threats of malnutrition from food reduction and water supplies. This only furthers social and political instability and drives poverty, conflict, and migration.
Necessary steps need to be followed. We must maintain Kenya’s healthy land, apply sustainable land management practices, and provide natural climate solutions to improve soil health and mitigate climate change.
Though not new, regenerative agriculture is a sustainable alternative to the practices that contribute to climate change. It’s about making a switch! If farmers in Kenya can regenerate their soils, they can build their resilience and help reverse some of the damages caused by years of conventional farming.
It’s not about doing away with traditional agroecological knowledge. On the contrary, it’s about using it effectively within the context of Africa’s wide crop diversity and combining it with sustainable practices to adapt to climate change. This is how farms are made more climate-proof, and farmers’ livelihoods are made more stable.
Forget About the Village- It Takes the Whole World To Combat Climate Change!
We’re taking our work to the next level and have mapped out a partnership of international and local organizations active in the Regenerative Agriculture space. With our consortium, we will build a business ecosystem that will raise interventions that incentivize farmers to adopt regenerative practices and we’re not stopping at 10,000 farmers! These businesses will form the blueprint that will inspire others to build similar businesses, and further the ecosystem.
Our implementing partners: Biovision Africa Trust bring in their extensive farmer network, and expertise in training farmers to adopt agro-ecological practices, and Resilience Design Founder, Warren Brush, is an agro-ecological expert, educator, and storyteller with work that spans over 30 years; designing regenerative systems for public and private sector players worldwide.
This is the 🆂🅾🅸🅻ution we need!
With this A-team, we’re connecting the dots between the environment, agriculture, and
livelihoods by building, and scaling ventures that help smallholders work their land to recover,regenerate, and ultimately thrive through the use of regenerative techniques.
Our program will improve land productivity, enhance food security and strengthen the resilience of soils across Kenya.
We have only just begun to scratch the surface of what we can accomplish, and delivering a successful outcome requires many different groups to work together and bring their unique strengths to bear. We hope you’ll join us.
If you are keen to partner, share ideas, connect with us, or fund our work, be in touch on our socials!
