Kenya: Green Growth and development planning
The Global Green Growth agenda is a defining aspect of Kenya’s future-making, reflected in a wide range of economic sectors such as energy, conservation, infrastructure, food production, and others. Kenya’s green transition ideas have been reflected in the country’s Green Economy policies (e.g. in biofuels and renewable energy) since 2008 and are aligned with the government’s long-term development plan, Vision 2030. Soon after the emergence of Green Growth as a concept in 2010, the country joined the newly created Global Green Growth Forum (3GF) in 2011, and quickly thereafter launched a Green Economy assessment study with the support of Northern actors, including the European Commission, WWF, and UNDP. The results of the study, which analysed the country’s Green Economy potential and challenges, provide a very optimistic outlook for a green future:
Under a green economy scenario, real per capita income in Kenya is expected to nearly double by 2030, outpacing income growth under business-as-usual scenario. The transition to a green economy can deliver important benefits, such as relatively high long-term economic growth, a cleaner environment and high productivity. The quantitative analyses undertaken to assess the economy-wide impact of green investments, under different scenarios, shows that significant positive returns can be realized after only seven to 10 years (UNEP 2014: 2).
With the promise of faster economic growth and increased wealth-creation opportunities, the country embarked on a Green Economy Strategy and Implementation Plan (GESIP). The plan, which covers the period 2016–2030, envisions a low-carbon, resource-efficient, equitable, and inclusive socio-economic transformation. Central to realization of GESIP are key international actors including UNEP, AfDB, DANIDA, WWF, and GIZ (Government of Kenya 2016). The resulting Green Growth and Green Economy initiatives and projects include the SWITCH Africa Green Project, Operationalizing Green Economy Transition at Sub-national level in Africa, the Denmark – Kenya Green Growth and Employment Programme,
1 Denmark contributed funds for activities that are part of NEMA’s Strategic Plan for 2013–17. NETFUND Green Incubation Program, Green Schools Program, and Sustainable Financing Initiative.
Notably, Green Growth strategies are increasingly featured in development planning in Kenya, but whether these aspirations translate into concrete action at the local level is debatable. Nevertheless, GESIP has paved the way for ‘greening’ key economic sectors such as environment and natural resources; agriculture, livestock and fisheries; industry, trade and cooperatives; manufacturing; community affairs, labour and social protection; water and irrigation; energy and petroleum; decentralisation and planning; and even education.
Kenya’s Green Growth strategy is developed around five thematic areas that are meant to align with the country’s Vision 2030 and related development plans. These are: (i) promoting sustainable infrastructure – energy, transport, agriculture and irrigation, water and sanitation, waste management, and housing and construction; (ii) building resilience – promoting efficient management of public finances, livelihood diversification for vulnerable communities, and enhancing disaster-risk-reduction measures; (iii) sustainable natural-resource management – encompassing agriculture, forestry, water, fisheries, wildlife, land use, and extractive industries; (iv) promoting resource efficiency – increasing national energy efficiency, enhancing water efficiency in urban and rural areas, managing waste as a resource; and (v) social inclusion and sustainable livelihoods – promoting green innovation and technology development, and accelerating creation of green jobs (Government of Kenya 2016).
Despite the spirited push of the greening agenda, there obviously remain difficulties in connecting, mainstreaming, and implementing the concepts in existing development plans. In a 2016 report, the state notes that Kenya’s transition to a Green Economy pathway is constrained by:
11 inadequate compliance, weak enforcement, and ineffective environmental laws and regulations;
22 cost, financial constraints and barriers to technological change, which inhibit green technology transfer, adoption, and adaptation;
33 conflict between environmental management and economic growth;
44 barriers limiting access to markets for green products at local as well as international level;
55 gaps in human capacity and skills in some aspects of green economy;
66 vulnerability of Kenya’s economy to internal and external shocks (e.g. adverse weather conditions, macroeconomic instability and performance, insecurity including terrorism);
77 key national challenges including infrastructure deficits, unemployment, and poverty (Government of Kenya 2016: 13–14).
Below, we zoom in on the case of organic farming to illustrate how the character of production has changed in response to Western demands and underlying realities.
Food for the future: greening Kenya’s food and agriculture sector
Over the past two decades, the greening of the food and agriculture sector in Africa has received increasing attention. This initiative has brought together local and international actors, including investors, development partners, financial institutions, and NGOs. It has also attracted billions of US dollars in investment and aid, both technical and financial. The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), established in 2006, is the continent’s vehicle for a green revolution in food and agriculture.
The idea of greening the food and agriculture sector in Africa is, ideally, a Northern concept, and therefore what we understand by a travelling model. The initiative ‘is part of the OECD’s Green Growth Strategy, which seeks to define a path of economic development that is consistent with long-term environmental sustainability, using natural resources within their carrying capacity, while ensuring an acceptable standard of living and poverty reduction in all countries’ (OECD 2011: 7). The OECD’s 2011 report ‘A Green Growth Strategy for Food and Agriculture’ supports this notion:
A green growth strategy aims to ensure that enough food is provided efficiently and sustainably for a growing population. This means increasing production while managing scarce natural resources, reducing carbon intensity and negative environmental impacts throughout the food chain, enhancing the provision of environmental services such as carbon sequestration, flood and drought control, and conserving biodiversity (ibid, 7).
As a result, Kenya’s agricultural growth and development has been a key feature of development planning. The 2010 Constitution prioritises food security as a devolved function; under Vision 2030, the agriculture sector promises to increase the country’s GDP by moving the economy up the value chain;
2 https://vision2030.go.ke/economic-pillar/. [Accessed 05.03.2021] and the Big 4 agenda prioritises agro-processing, food, and nutrition security.
3 https://www.president.go.ke/food-security-and-nutrition/. [Accessed 11.04.2021] Trends shaping agriculture globally have led to a series of reviews of the sector in Kenya since 2003, culminating in the establishment of the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) in 2014.
4 AFA Strategic Plan 2017/18–2021/22 https://agricultureauthority.go.ke/images/docs/AFA%20Strategic%20Plan-min(1).pdf, [Accessed 18.07.2021] AFA is a State Corporation in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives whose main role is to regulate, develop, and promote scheduled crop value chains for increased economic growth.
5 https://www.agricultureauthority.go.ke/index.php/en/homepage/background, [Accessed 18.07.2021] In line with the OECD prescription, one of the AFA’s key initiatives is to promote the Green Growth economy, framed as ‘promoting economic growth and development while conserving the natural assets that provide the resources and environmental services on which our well-being depends’ (AFA Strategic Plan 2017/18–2021/22, 28). To this end, AFA, in collaboration with other stakeholders,
seeks to provide technical assistance to the counties of Kenya in promoting the concept of green growth economy as a way of ensuring environmental protection and sustainability through agricultural practices, such as promoting diversification into appropriate non-traditional agricultural crops to safeguard the environment and vulnerability to climate change, and sensitising value chain actors on best environmental practices in agriculture (ibid.: 29).
Organic farming: the promise and reality of a green idea
Organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems, and people, and is based on ecological processes, biodiversity, and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than on the use of inputs with adverse effects (IFOAM 2013). It is seen, not only as a modification of existing conventional practices, but also as a restructuring of whole farming systems (UNEP/UNCTAD 2008: 6–7). Although organic farming started in Kenya in the early 1980s (Kamau et al. 2018), it has remained a rather unpopular farming system, especially among the millions of smallholder farmers who account for more than 80 per cent of the country’s agricultural production. Out of approximately 28 million hectares of agricultural land in Kenya, only 171,298 hectares, or 0.6 per cent, were organic in 2022.
The results of a study in Embu in 2021 revealed a number of realities experienced by organic farmers dealing in macadamia and French beans.
Cost and time:
Organic farming is costly and time-consuming, making it almost entirely dependent on external funding. Costs include converting conventional farms to organic, which takes about two years; capacity building to equip farmers with the necessary organic farming skills; soil testing and chemical analysis; and certification, to name a few. One macadamia company
6 Of the 33 macadamia processors in Kenya, only two are certified organic. reported spending about €2 million to obtain certification to market its products in Europe. It also spent around €5 million to train 60,000 farmers in organic farming over a four-year period. Another company, which had experimented with exporting organically produced French beans, suffered heavy losses and reverted to conventional farming. Organic farming for the export market is thus complex, making it a venture for multinational companies to access European markets.
The risk of organic farming:
In addition to the capital requirements, interviews with farm managers from the two companies revealed that organic farming, particularly for food crops such as French beans, vegetables, and fruit, is very risky and unpredictable and therefore may not guarantee a return on investment or quality of produce. Fruit and vegetables require more chemicals due to their higher exposure to pests, while organic pest control methods have only a 40 per cent success rate. Organic food was at risk of not meeting international market requirements for the particularly demanding Demeter biodynamic certification.
Competition between organic and inorganic pesticides:
Over 90 per cent of Kenya’s agricultural land is used for conventional farming. With a growing population, demand for food is increasing and farmers are looking for ways to increase production, thereby driving the demand for agrochemicals in Africa. This has created an illegal market for inorganic pesticides that are harmful to humans and the environment. The largest producers and exporters of inorganic pesticides to Kenya include Europe and China through companies such as BASF, Bayer AG, and Syngenta.
7 https://africasacountry.com/2021/01/death-by-pesticide ; https://routetofood.org/pesticides-banned-in-europe-available-in-kenya-why-we-should-be-worried/ [Accessed 14.08.2021] The use of agricultural chemicals listed on the PAN International List of Highly Hazardous Pesticides
8 http://www.pan-germany.org/download/PAN_HHP_List_161212_F.pdf, [Accessed 08.08.2021] is banned in these countries, but they still find a large market in Africa, threatening food security, human health, and the quality of the environment.
9 https://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/news/europe-banned-insecticide-threatens-africa-s-food-security/ ; https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-019-0488-0, [Accessed 16.08.2021] Ironically, Western markets set high parameters for the production and export of organic produce from Africa, while in return, they export harmful agrochemicals.
Exporting organic produce:
Organic farming in Kenya is largely an export industry. Because of the costs and risks associated with the sector, only a small proportion of Kenya’s population can afford organic food. This limited purchasing power can be seen in the very few local markets for organic produce, which exist only in parts of affluent Nairobi, but not in local food markets. As a result, local farmers, like the macadamia farmers in Embu, produce for export only and may not be able to afford the processed nuts as a staple food themselves.
Despite the promise of increased agricultural productivity, food security and healthy living (for both farmers and consumers), higher returns from global markets for organic produce, conservation of natural resources, etc., the future of agriculture in Kenya is not being built around organic farming. Furthermore, organic farming and conventional farming are at odds with each other. The greening of agriculture promises a future where enough food is produced efficiently and sustainably for a growing population, while managing scarce natural resources. These greening promises often conflict with the existing situations and conditions of the future of conventional agriculture, where the use of chemical inputs tends to be standardised. The two agricultural futures are contradictory. For the majority of smallholders, the transition to an organic (certified) agricultural future is risky and the future of the greening agenda is uncertain.