From the Field Transforming farming and gender equality in Nakuru County through Socio-Technical Innovation Bundling
In Kenya, the CGIAR Gender Equality Initiative (HER+), the Ukama Ustawi Initiative, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), the County Department of Agriculture (extension services) and local farmer organizations co-designed socio-technical innovation bundles (STIBs) to build women empowerment and resilience.
Since 2022, the implementation of STIBs in Nakuru county through collaboration between CGIAR initiatives, KALRO, the County Department of Agriculture and local farmer organizations has enhanced climate resilience, improved crop productivity, and gender equality. Men and women who adopted STIBs reported greater decision-making roles and household food security. Specifically, HER+ integration of increased women's decision-making in Ukama Ustawi farm demonstration of climate-smart agriculture and conservation agriculture has catalyzed sustainable farming practices and fostered equitable social and economic transformation.
Nakuru is considered the country’s grain baskets because of its varied climate and fertile soils that support a wide range of crops – but farmers are facing a confluence of challenges, including climate change and limited access to credit, finance, market, and extension services. Technological solutions like new maize and common bean varieties have been promoted on the farms. Still, their access and use by men and women are often unequal, and resilience against climate change remains low due to a lack of systematic integration of social innovations. To address this problem, HER+ collaborates with Ukama Ustawi to enhance climate resilience and improve women’s empowerment in Nakuru County. The HER+ initiative since 2022 has been promoting co-designed and testing of socio-technical innovation bundles (STIBs) that empower men, women, and youth while improving climate resilience. They integrated technical bundles (gender and nutrition training) and social bundles (market, decision-making, policy and institutions).
In collaboration with Ukama Ustawi and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, HER+ plus developed brochures - Diversified cropping systems for inclusive and resilient agri-food system in Embu County and Diversification for an inclusive and resilient agri-food system in Kenya to foster farmers’ and other stakeholders’ engagement with technologies and social innovations co-designed by the initiatives and to provide information on social and technical innovation that empowers farmers while addressing climate change challenges. HER+ has also integrated gender-sensitive nutrition training to address gender-specific nutritional needs, promote shared nutrition decision-making and responsibilities, enhance farmers’ practical skills in preparing balanced meals, and foster behavioral change. The initiative has also designed animations to champion a food-secure community, narrate experiences in adopting and adapting STIBs, and demonstrate best practices for integrating gender-sensitive nutrition education into agricultural systems. The animations also demonstrates the role of mechanization in improving agricultural productivity while addressing gender barriers to sustainability, adaptability, and resilience in agricultural systems.
Together with stakeholder workshops, HER+ knowledge products have showcased the potential of STIBs in transforming maize-legume cropping systems while advancing gender equality and climate resilience. This is demonstrated in two studies conducted in Nakuru. In the first study, adoption of STIBs resulted in 64% and 81% higher common bean and maize productivity, respectively. This was confirmed during the monitoring and evaluation study when a female participant in FGD mentioned: “There is another section I planted one acre of maize, and truthfully, I have never harvested that much maize. I harvest about 18 bags while in the past I would get five to seven bags, and I consider this a big improvement.”
Adoption of STIBs has also enhanced climate resilience. Self-reported resilience for capacities – anticipative, absorptive, adaptative, and transformative – indicated that STIBs increased men and women resilience to prolonged drought scenario. Resilience was higher when co-designed. Extension officer confirmed farmers observation by indicating that: “practices like mulching and using improved seeds enabled farmers to adapt to changing weather patterns. The crops survive longer, and the yields were better compared to traditional method that farmer were practices before their involvement in HER+ and Ukama Ustawi initiatives.”
Studies also indicate that women farmers are particularly active participants in the project, often taking leadership roles in baby demonstration plots. This has translated into positive shifts in household decision-making dynamics, with decision women’s involvement in decision-regarding use of land, livestock raising, crop production, sale and utilization of income and use of own and co-owned tending to be collaborative among adopters than non-adopters of STIBs. Collaborative decision-making has encouraged men to support women’s agricultural efforts, unlike in the past when men unilaterally made income decisions.
These changes in women’s agency, productivity, and resilience were reported as pathways towards food security, as underlined by 23% of project participants compared to 14% of non-participants who had food secure households. In terms of dietary diversity, more women (81%) and men (80%) in Nakuru had acceptable levels of dietary diversity compared to women (62%) and men (54%) non-adopters. While no disparities in household dietary diversity were reported for among STIBs, women significant differences were noted among non-adopters.
It was an inspiring training for me. It was good and simple. It has transformed our lives, and we have food security. My husband barely respected me, especially on farming issues, as I had no progress to show. After attending HER+ and Ukama Ustawi activities around mother-baby demonstrations, what was an impossibility today is a reality ... our farm productivity has doubled. I now not only have adequate food for home consumption, but I have more than surplus to take to the market. I am now always hopeful and excited with each planting season; my husband and I are happy, and our children are healthy. – Baby Demonstration Host Farmer in Elmentaita Ward, Gilgil sub-county, Nakuru County.
Cover Photo: Interview with project participants during monitoring and evaluation in Nakuru County. Credit: Oscar Ingasia
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