The impact of Bioversity International's African Leafy Vegetables programme in Kenya

Abstract

An objective of Bioversity International is to promote income and food security by ensuring that agricultural biodiversity is conserved, characterised and used to improve productivity. The African Leafy Vegetables (ALVs) programme was initiated and implemented to meet this objective but no impact evaluation has been carried out since its conclusion. This study aims to evaluate the role played by Bioversity and its partners in the programme, and to assess the impact of the ALVs programme on the livelihoods of farmers in four regions of Kenya. The study used both primary and secondary data. Information from the survey was complemented by focus group discussions. To assess the role of Bioversity and its partners, all the partners were identified and interviewed. Bioversity was found to have ably acted as catalyst, facilitator and coordinator of the programme. Results also showed that production, consumption and marketing of ALVs had increased since 1997, women still dominated most of the ALVs activities, and those households that marketed ALVs were relatively better off than those that did not.

Keywords:

• agro-biodiversity
• ALVs
• in-situ conservation
• Kenya
• poverty alleviation
• impact assessment