Kenya food systems has been experiencing volatilities due to periodic droughts that have resulted in crop failures as well as increasing costs of food. This makes it difficult for many Kenyan households to obtain sufficient, nutritious, and diverse food which results in malnutrition and unfavorable health outcomes (Ombima, 2023).
Encouraging the production of indigenous crop varieties has the potential to significantly reduce food insecurity in Kenya. Native plants, such as sorghum and millet, are high in nutritional value and resilient to adverse climatic conditions, making them ideal for cultivation in drought-prone locations (Ombima, 2023). Diversifying agricultural production systems by encouraging production of underutilized species provides potential to improve the adaptation, mitigation, and resilience of natural agrifood and socioeconomic systems (Bokelmann et al., 2022).
In 2023, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) through its Food Systems Report emphasized on a food systems transformation lens, which includes the development of resilient crops that are environmentally sustainable, socially equitable, and economically viable. Kenya’s abundant biodiversity supports a wide range of indigenous crop types with enormous potential for increasing agricultural productivity and food sovereignty. Native foods have not been used to their full potential to slow down the rate and development of food insecurity, especially in the country’s semi-arid and arid regions. These indigenous plants are ideal for conventional agricultural methods and sustainable agriculture since they have evolved and adapted to fit the local environment over many generations and are often produced with less resource input.
The objectives of this study are:
- To determine factors affecting the adoption of sorghum and millet farming in Kenya
- To assess the factors influencing the production of sorghum and millet in Kenya
