Tridge summary
The article highlights the success of the Accelerated Value Chain Development-Drought Tolerant Crops (AVCD-DTC) program in improving the yield and income of smallholder farmers in Kenya, particularly in Makueni County, by introducing climate resilient and high yielding drought tolerant crop varieties. The program, funded by USAID’s Feed the Future (FtF) Initiative as part of the Accelerated Institutional and Food Systems Development (AIFSD) project, aims to further enhance agriculture productivity, income, nutrition security, and resilience of smallholder farmers by addressing the gaps in the seed system and extension services. The article also emphasizes the challenges smallholder farmers face in achieving high yields due to the weak extension system and lack of improved crop varieties, and the negative impact of COVID-19 on food systems and food security. The AIFSD project, implemented by a consortium of ILRI, ICRISAT, and CIP, will cover three arid and semi-arid counties including Kitui, Makueni, and Taita Taveta, and will leverage public-private partnerships, agri-science innovations, and digital technologies to deliver agricultural technologies to farmers.
Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.
Original content
When Betty Bondo, a farmer in Kenya’s Makueni County, started growing new green gram varieties introduced by ICRISAT, her yield tripled from two bags (200 kg) per acre to six bags (600 kg) per acre. This encouraged her to increase green gram cultivation acreage from 1 to 3 and then to 20. Betty and her family are among the 163,000 households that were reached with improved Drought Tolerant Crops (DTC) varieties that are climate resilient, high yielding and early maturing through ICRISAT’s Accelerated Value Chain Development-Drought Tolerant Crops (AVCD-DTC). These households are gainfully farming as a business, and household members are either out of or on a pathway to escaping absolute poverty and attaining food and nutrition security. Prior to AVCD-DTC program interventions, most farmers used local varieties that were sold in the market, most of which were recycled seed, because there was no improved varieties. ICRISAT, through AVCD-DTC, introduced farmers in Busia, Siaya, ...
Source: Icrisat
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