Kenyan high-ranking DAAD delegation visits ZEF to discuss challenges and changes in Kenya's agriculture

Fifteen Kenyan high-ranking representatives from Kenya's governmental, non-governmental, private and research sectors visited ZEF to discuss the country's agricultural issues.

ZEF-Director Christian Borgemeister welcomed the visitors from Kenya, whose six-day stay in Germany was organized by the German Academic Exchange Service <link https: www.daad.de de external-link-new-window internal link in current>DAAD.

ZEF senior researchers <link https: www.zef.de external-link-new-window internal link in current>Oliver Kirui, <link https: www.zef.de external-link-new-window internal link in current>Lisa Biber-Freudenberger and <link https: www.zef.de external-link-new-window internal link in current>Juliet Wanjiku Kamau attended the meeting as well.

After some introductory presentations about ZEF's involvement in sub-Saharan Africa, the discussion focused on Kenya's agricultural development and challenges to overcome.

Professor Hamadi Iddi Boga from the <link http: www.kilimo.go.ke external-link-new-window internal link in current>State Department for Agricultural Research (SDAR) in Kenya high-lighted Kenya's nine "flagships" driving the country's agricultural sector transformation, coordinated by the Agricultural Transformation Office.

The overall flagships issues to be handled with high priority are: Increasing small-scale farmer incomes; Increasing agricultural output and value addition; Boosting household food resilience and; Enhancing "enablers". Kenya will focus on empowering small-holder farmers, and boosting their food resilience. This will be achieved, e.g. by knowledge and skills building programmes, focused on improving technical and management skills, as well as by strengthening research and innovation capacities.

Kenya has around 8.6 million farmers, representing 4.5 million farming households even if only 350,000 formal jobs exist in the sector. Find more core facts about Kenya's agriculture <link file:12282 download internal link in current>slides here.

ZEF looks forward to further cooperation with Kenya's agricultural institutions.

ZEF is working in Kenya in the context of the following projects:<link https: www.zef.de research-capacity-development research-projects.html external-link-new-window internal link in current> www.zef.de/research-capacity-development/research-projects.html:

• <link projects>EntoNUTRI: Development and implementation of insect-based products to enhance food and nutritional security in sub-Saharan Africa
• <link projects>Future Infections: Linking social-ecological transformation and arthropod-borne infections – part of the SFB 228 Future Rural Africa
• <link projects>Improved application strategies for entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) as biological control agents in integrated pest management (IPM)
• <link projects>PARI - Program of Accompanying Research for Agricultural Innovation
• <link projects>Right Livelihood College (RLC) - RLC Global Secretariat
• <link projects>Strengthening Citrus production systems through the introduction of IPM measure