Unlocking the potential of agrobiodiversity conservation for food and nutrition security and mitigating the effects of climate change

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1 Unlocking the potential of agrobiodiversity conservation for food and nutrition security and mitigating the effects of climate change SIMON MBURU KENYATTA UNIVERSITY Quantitative methods for integrated food and nutrition security measurement lessons to be learned! NOV 2017 Brussels, Belgium.

2 Introduction Conservation of crop biodiversity is crucial in attaining agricultural systems which are sustainable in mitigating climate change in the context of scarce external inputs. Mixed farms represent a source of high agrobiodiversity that can be utilized to tackle food insecurity With promotion of simplified cropping systems, agrobiodiversity is under pressure to decrease. There is replacement of mixed farms with monoculture systems.

3 Climate change impacts are unavoidable Climate change will exacerbate other pressures acting on natural systems, including land use change, invasive alien species and other disturbance such as fire. Climate change will have predominantly adverse impacts on many ecosystems and services essential for human well-being.

4 Situation in Kenya

5 Motivation As a result of biodiversity loss, community s resilience to harsh environmental conditions has been reduced as evidenced by the present continuous drought, food insecurity and low income. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa from the perspective of nutrition, greater agrobiodiversity in agricultural systems have been linked to greater dietary diversity. Therefore, there is a need to study biodiversity loss and its regain through practices in agricultural landscapes.

6 Study focus The study aimed to determine; i. The status of agrobiodiversity among smallholder farmers in Lower and Upper Midland zones of Eastern Kenya, ii. The role of agrobiodiversity in food security among smallholder farmers.

7 Study sites

8 Methods Structured questionnaires were administered randomly through face-to-face interviews with individual household heads. The interviews focused on the diversity of farming systems, farm characteristics, livestock species, crop species and varieties, major diseases and pests, soil fertility and the type of weeds. The household hunger score (HHS) comprised of items that were asked with a recall period of 3 months, as described by FAO [2015]. The results from HHS delineated households across the three levels of food insecurity, which include food secure, moderate food insecure and severe food insecure. The households scores were assigned to one of the levels according to Coates et al

9 Findings Thirty-nine crop species were identified from the households surveyed. Maize and common beans (Legumes) were the most dominant crop species grown by 58 and 53 % household, respectively. Vegetable species were diverse and dominated with high percentages where kales were leading.

10 Crops grown by smallholder farmers in Embu and Tharaka-Nithi counties

11 DIVERSITY CONT Venn diagram showing the distribution of different crop species among smallholder farmers in the selected Agroecological Zones of Eastern Kenya. The study identified 23 crop species that were cultivated in the four regions

12 Crop species diversity There was relatively high H of in all the sampled categories. ELM zone recorded the highest H of 3.403, TLM (H = 3.377), while upper midland zones recorded relatively lower H DIVERSITY REGION EUM ELM TUM TLM Taxa_S Individuals Dominance_D Simpson_1-D Shannon_H Evenness_e^H/S

13 Spearman s correlation coefficient (r) between demographic factors and biodiversity Factors Age of household head Education level Farm years Total farm Shannon Simpson size (acres) diversity diversity index (H ) index (D) Age of household head 1 Education level Farm years Total farm size (acres) Shannon diversity index (H ) 0.398** 0.489** ** ** ** * 0.056* Simpson diversity ** 1

14 Households food shortage and the level of severity (%) in the selected sites of Eastern Kenya ZONES Food Severity of food shortage shortage (%) Moderate (%) Severe (%) EUM ELM TUM TLM Overall (All zones)

15 Crop diversity High crop richness and diversity was recorded from smallholder farmers in lower midland zones and were more food secure compared to farmers in upper midland zones who recorded low crop richness and diversity. The results suggest that conservation of high crop diversity in farm production systems contribute significantly toward preventing food insecurity due to climate change.

16 Sustainable Agriculture

17 Conclusions Households whose farms were low on crop diversity and richness were more food insecure compared with households with high crop diversity and richness. Diversifying smallholder farming through livestock and indigenous crops will improve diet and income to the smallholder households.

18 Recommendations Improve biodiversity national inventories to include relevant spatial information assessing threats caused by climate change to species, populations or genotypes of relevance to food and agriculture. Develop biodiversity monitoring plans to analyze changes in delivery of ecosystem services due to climate change in specific farming systems, to inform place-based adaptation strategies.

19 END Thank you for your attention