Climate services and subsidised fertilizer programmes must be synchronised
As the economy begins to open up and people focus on production in this era of the Covid-19 pandemic, one group that needs concerted support is small scale farmers. More than 78 per cent of Kenya’s food comes from small scale farmers while over 65 per cent of economically active people are employed across different points of the agriculture value chain. Given the reality of climate change, it is now well acknowledged that seasonal patterns are shifting and climate extremes, particularly droughts and floods are becoming more frequent. This means that the optimal “window of production” for farmers is no longer predictable. One of the most needed services for small scale farmers, most of whom practise rain-fed agriculture, is climate information generally and information about the onset of rains specifically. In recognition of the value of small scale farming to the overall economy, the government has recently (in the the course of the last 10 years) been providing subsidised fertil