Nature-positive climate smart farming success in Nyakach
Innovation bundles are integrated technological, socioecological, and policy solutions to harmonize environmental health with human development, and a powerful example of this vision is unfolding in Nyakach, Kisumu County, Kenya.
As global food systems contribute to the alteration of over 75% of the world’s land surface and the loss of nearly half of animal species, the need for integrated, sustainable landscape management has never been more urgent. In response, the Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program (MFL) is deploying "innovation bundles" - integrated technological, socioecological, and policy solutions - to harmonize environmental health with human development. A powerful example of this vision in action is unfolding in Nyakach, Kisumu County, Kenya, where a community-led initiative is transforming degraded land into a productive, resilient ecosystem.
The challenge: fragmentation and conflict
For decades, 52 acres of ancestral land in Nyakach East remained underutilized, serving only as idle open grazing land where boundaries had been lost since 1972. This fragmentation and lack of clear ownership led to persistent conflicts with neighboring communities over livestock, often resulting in the loss of animals and lives. Historically, households were not engaged in active farming, recording poor harvests for years while struggling with the "vagaries of climate".
The Innovation: Voluntary land pooling
In 2022, the Agoro East Aggregated Farm was formed with support from the CGIAR Nature Positive Initiative and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. This initiative exemplifies a core MFL strategy: using a "Living Landscape" to co-design and implement innovations.
- Collective action: 108 smallholder farmers voluntarily pooled their individual plots into a single, 52-acre collectively managed farm.
- Restoring boundaries: To overcome the legacy of land fragmentation, the Alliance worked with the Kisumu County Government to bring in surveyors to re-establish property lines, allowing for larger-scale commercial agriculture.
- Bundled solutions: The farm transitioned from subsistence cassava and beans to a diversified commercial model including fish farming, poultry, and the production of black soldier flies for pest control.
Transforming outcomes: Productivity and Resilience
By adopting nature-positive farming techniques and permaculture, the farmers of Nyakach are seeing a turnaround in their fortunes though enhanced climate resilience.
- Yields and food security: Farmers who once suffered successive poor harvests can now enjoy better yields and improved livelihoods despite climate challenges.
- Environmental restoration: Degraded and fragmented communal land has been transformed into viable, fertile, and arable tracts suitable for commercial agriculture.
- Socio-Ecological gains: The shift to collective management has not only reduced conflict but also improved social cohesion - a key outcome target for the MFL.
Aligning with 2030 Global Goals
The success in Nyakach is a blueprint for the MLP’s goal to reach 2 million farmers in 15 countries with bundled solutions by 2030. Kenya is a priority country for the program due to its volatile climate and unreliable growing seasons. By scaling models like the Agoro East Aggregated Farm, the MFL aims to restore millions of hectares of degraded land and conserve over 98% of agrobiodiversity within targeted landscapes.
The transformation of Nyakach’s idle land into a vibrant "Living Landscape" proves that when technological innovation is bundled with community-led governance and policy support, landscapes can become both ecologically healthy and economically viable. As Philip Okinyo, Chairperson of the Agoro East Aggregated Farm, notes, the shift has turned once-contested land into a model for "commercial agriculture under the nature-positive farms system".
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Authors: Ojanji, Wandera and Masso, Cargele