The effects of climate change are already being witnessed by Kenyan tea producers. In Kenya’s Rift Valley alone, production fell by 30% in 2009 due to a widespread drought.
Smallholders account for 60% of tea production in Kenya and as the effects of climate change take hold, their ability to sustain a living from tea will be put under increasing pressure.
About the project
ETP and the German Development Agency GIZ (formerly GTZ) have started work on a 3 year, €390,000 public-private partnership that will provide training and tools to help smallholders to adapt to climate change. This ETP/GIZ collaboration is working with the Kenyan Tea Development Agency (KTDA) to roll out the project.
The phases of the project
We’ve commissioned climate modellers CIAT (The International Centre for Tropical Agriculture) to map which areas will be most affected by climate change in 2020 and 2050. We will use this information to identify the producers who are most vulnerable to climate change.
For the second phase of the project, we are developing training materials about climate change and mitigation techniques. A pool of promoter farmers from 5 KTDA factories are going to be given in-depth training on these issues. They will then work directly with smallholders from their regions, helping them to adapt.
The training
A range of measures covering all aspects of tea production such as pruning, soil management and gap-filling will be covered in the training. The training will also include:
- the selection of drought- and disease-resistant plant varieties
- conservation of biodiversity to increase the resilience of ecosystems
- changes in agricultural practice to comply with the climate criteria for relevant certification programmes
- promotion of energy efficiency to reduce deforestation rates
- making livelihoods more resilient, such as introducing kitchen gardens to secure additional income and food supply.
As part of the training, an analysis toolkit will be used to help smallholders identify specific risks, reasons why they’re being affected and possible solutions. This will also help smallholders to understand the relationship between climate change risks and their yields.
Outcomes
The objective of the project is to reach 10,000 smallholders supplying KTDA factories by October 2013.
