From fix to fitting: Connecting low-emission development with multilevel smallholder dairy practices in Kenya

ABSTRACT

Smallholder livestock production systems are targeted for climate change mitigation via Low-Emission Development Strategies (LEDS). LEDS promote the adoption of so-called best agricultural practices for mitigation gains, while also expecting to contribute to socio-economic development. However, the assumed alignment between LEDS and varied realities of smallholder farmers is not self-evident. This study argues for a shift away from problematizing the adoption of ideal-type and uniform LED-practices (or a “fix”) to fitting LEDS to diverse smallholder priorities and capabilities embedded in specific regional histories and conditions. To make this shift, we assess the plausibility of fit of LED-practices into diverse smallholder realities in Kenya’s dairy sector. A mixed-methods approach exposes variation in the use of LED-practices in diverse dairy practices at household and regional levels. We characterize smallholder heterogeneity by distinguishing six clusters through a multivariate analysis of data from 1009 households in three regions of Kenya, and present patterns in uptake and intensity of the use of LED-practices for each household type. Next, the combination of quantitative and qualitative data shows variation in uptake of LED-practices at the level of the three counties, which suggests the importance of regional conditions in shaping the uptake of LED-practices and places the adoption focus beyond household-level decision-making. Subsequently, we identify starting points for LEDS design attuned to variation in smallholder dairy realities at multiple levels, where we consider scale at the start, and shift attention from the adoption of fixes to the creation of spaces conducive to “fitting” LED-practices into diverse realities.

KEYWORD:

• East Africa
• livestock
• household typology
• agriculture
• sustainable intensification

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the respondents who participated in this research and the enumerators team who helped with data collection. We also acknowledge Michael Graham and Jesse Owino from ILRI Nairobi for their support in developing the maps.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

This research was approved by the Institutional Research Ethics Committee (IREC) of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in 2017. All participants of the survey and key informant interviews provided written consent; all other participants of the research provided oral consent.

Notes

¹ Approximately 727 million USD.

Additional information

Funding

This research was financially supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) within the “Greening Livestock: Incentive-based Interventions for Reducing the Climate Impact of Livestock in East Africa” project [grant number 2000000994, 2016] and by the project “Multiple pathways and inclusive low emission development: navigating towards leverage points in the East-African dairy sector” (grant number [W 08.260.306] financially supported by the Food & Business Global Challenges Programme (GCP) of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) in East Africa. CGIAR receives generous financial support from the CGIAR Trust Fund and CGIAR Donors through bilateral funding agreements. For details, please visit https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors. The views expressed in this document cannot be taken to reflect the official opinions of these organizations.