Beans, Climate and Resilience: How weather and climate information is transforming bean farming in Homa Bay

In the heart of Kenya’s Homa Bay County, farmers are redefining how they grow beans. Not just with better seeds or tools, but with forecasts in hand and climate information guiding their every move. During a two-day donor assurance field visit from June 11–12, 2025, a team from the Government of the United Kingdom and the WISER programme (led by the UK Meteorological Office), saw first hand how smallholder farmers are leveraging weather and climate information services (WCIS) to build more resilient farming systems.

The visit was organized by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, in collaboration with the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD), and Caritas-Homabay. It aimed to showcase how localized climate information is influencing agricultural decision-making and outcomes. The activity builds on groundwork laid by the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) and the BRAINS project, whose ongoing efforts to strengthen climate-resilient bean value chains have significantly shaped ECREA’s interventions in the region.