The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has rolled out a programme in Kenya aimed at promoting sustainable farming practices towards reducing carbon emissions that are leading to global warming and climate change.
According to Caroline Kosgey, an Agribusiness and Agri-food value chain specialist at FAO Kenya, while much attention has rightly focused on sectors like energy and transportation, agriculture’s contribution to climate change has often been overlooked.
She disclosed that a staggering 31 percent of greenhouse gas emissions stem from food systems right from cultivation to consumption.
Speaking in Nakuru when she met representatives of Nyamira, Laikipia and Nakuru counties to deliberate on ways to roll out the programme, Ms Kosgey indicated that methane emissions from livestock, nitrous oxide from fertilisers, deforestation for expanding farmland and reliance on fossil fuels in modern agricultural machinery have significant consequences on climate change.
She indicated that the initiative which is also being supported by United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is promoting a circular economy in agribusiness by encouraging farmers to use food waste to produce new products.
The circular economy model of production and consumption aims to inspire farmers to make environmentally conscious choices in their daily activities, fostering a culture of sustainability.
Ms Kosgey said that they have a comprehensive programme aimed at reducing waste, fostering recycling and encouraging responsible consumption habits among farmers and residents.
“The circular economy model prioritises the minimisation of waste by reusing, recycling and repurposing materials to create a closed-loop system, one person’s waste is someone else’s raw material,” she said.
For instance, farmers are being trained to use rejected tomatoes to make ketchup, rejected bananas or orange peel to make animal feed, rice husk to make compost/organic fertilisers, pineapple crowns to make biodegradable packaging materials or other food waste to produce bio-energy.
“We are taking a targeted group of farmers through customised training on Agri-circularity. We are completely focused on agribusiness with the goal of making circularity a mainstream approach for improved rural livelihoods and sustainability,” the official pointed out.
Ms Kosgey noted that food systems offer a powerful lever to address the climate crisis and avert further environmental catastrophes adding that farmers can reduce emissions by improving farming practices, reducing food waste and adopting plant-dominant diets.
She observed “Making progress on these important issues in our food system are all ways to address the climate crisis. We want to create agribusiness model that generates income from waste and will spearhead the initiative of the circular economy model emphasising on the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling resources,”
Ms Kosgey explained that they were promoting compositing, a natural process of recycling organic matter, which not only reduces waste but enriches soil health aiding in carbon sequestration. Sustainable livestock farming practices, she stated, helps land capture and hold on to carbon.
She stated that rotating crops and pasture-raised livestock can also improve soil and help prevent water pollution.
The official explained that farmers were being encouraged to embrace carbon farming which focuses on use of agricultural techniques to capture and store carbon in the soil and subsequently aiding in curbing climate change effects.
“If managed well, farms can use practices that act as “carbon sinks,” to help take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and sequester it in the soil on the farm, helping to fight climate change,”
Ms Kosgey indicated that the central methods of carbon farming include, using a seed drill to avoid tilling the soil and make it possible to plant seeds beneath the surface without disrupting the topsoil, covering the soil with organic mulch to prevent carbon losses, composting, rotating livestock on fields, and planting cover crops.
The initiative is also rooting for alternative methods of farming such as regenerative farming and climate smart agriculture to boost yields and income while reducing emissions for a viable future for the planet.
She affirmed that FAO’s agribusiness approach does not only address environmental concerns but also promotes economic growth by optimising resource usage.
Nyamira County Director of Trade and Investment Dominic Barare noted that through the initiative farmers in the devolved unit had been trained on banana, avocado, dairy, tea, coffee and indigenous vegetables value addition to increase the post-harvest shelf life and improve earnings.
He singled out value addition of bananas which was now helping farmers sell their produce for better prices while ensuring the fruits last longer than their normal shelf life.
According to Mr Barare these value-added products include banana chips and crisps made from unripe bananas and mostly the plantain or green bananas, banana flour made from green mature bananas, banana jam, banana juice, banana powder and banana wine and beer.
The Director further indicated that banana fibre is being used by farmers for weaving mats, clothes, rugs and making compost manure.
He stated that banana fibre products are eco-friendly, durable, and have natural anti-bacterial properties.
Trade Officer in Laikipia County Isaac Malakwen said the FAO programme is promoting the leather value addition in the region as a way of positioning Kenya as a leading producer and exporter of quality leather products as the country seeks to attain Vision 2030.
He noted that demand for leather and leather products globally is growing faster than supply.
Mr Malakwen indicated that Laikipia with 350,000 cattle and over 1 million goats and sheep, the leather and leather products sector offer an important opportunity for industrialisation and job creation under the government’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (Beta).
“We are betting on leather value addition to generate income and give a lifeline to tens of herders in the region, who sell the raw hides and skins at a throwaway price,” noted the Trade Officer.
By Anne Mwale
