The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries has called for greater recognition of farmers as key drivers of agricultural innovation, saying their knowledge should be combined with scientific research to develop solutions that address real challenges in the field.
Angela Nanyenya, a principal agriculture extension skills management officer at the Ministry, said farmers should not be treated merely as the final recipients of agricultural technologies but should be involved from the outset in identifying problems, testing solutions and scaling up successful innovations.
“Farmer-led innovation does not mean rejecting formal science, but it means bringing farmer knowledge and scientific knowledge together, with researchers, extension professionals, farmers and the private sector working together to identify the problem through experimentation, validation, adaptation and scaling of these innovations,” Nanyenya said.
She was speaking during the opening of the Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) Programme symposium in Makindye.
Nanyenya said farmers were already developing innovations across the agricultural value chain, including production, processing, value addition, branding and collective marketing.
She said these innovations could help farmers increase productivity, improve yields, add value to their products and access better markets, ultimately contributing to higher household incomes and improved food security.
“The farmer should not be regarded as a last mile of agriculture innovation but rather a first mile where the farmer takes the driving seat,” she said.
The Ministry's position comes as development organisation Horizont3000 prepares to roll out a new Shs4.8 billion (€1.2 million) programme aimed at supporting farmer-led innovations and improving agricultural incomes.
The funding, secured through the Australian Development Agency, will support the expansion of the ERI approach under a new four-year framework running from 2027 to 2030.
The programme is expected to reach approximately 5,940 farmers, including about 2,900 new beneficiaries and farmers carried over from the previous framework.
The approach helps farmers identify challenges affecting their enterprises and develop practical solutions in areas such as production, post-harvest handling, pest management, market research and gender inclusion.
Nanyenya also highlighted the growing role of digital technology in strengthening communication between farmers, researchers, extension workers and policymakers.
She said farmers could use digital platforms to access weather and market information while sharing challenges encountered in their fields.
Such feedback may include WhatsApp messages, photographs and audio recordings showing crop diseases, pest infestations and other agricultural problems.
According to Nanyenya, this information can help government agencies and researchers develop policies, technologies and extension services that are more responsive to farmers' needs.
The Ministry works with development partners through the government extension system, with district production offices helping to identify areas requiring additional agricultural services and monitoring programmes implemented by partners.
Kenneth Massa, programmes manager at Horizont3000, said the new programme would also focus on the economic empowerment of women, who play a major role in agricultural production but often have limited control over the income generated from farm produce.
Massa, who represented Solomon Mbubi, Horizont3000's regional director for East Africa, said the organisation sought to promote greater gender equality in agriculture and ensure women had a stronger voice in decisions concerning farm income.
“Studies show that women, while they are the major producers in the agricultural sector, when it comes to the economic security of farming that we get in the market, again, the men take over,” Massa said.
He said disputes over control of agricultural income could contribute to domestic conflicts and gender-based violence.
“When the farmers harvest, who are women, after harvesting, when it comes to the market, the men take over. They want to get the money. And what comes next is gender-based violence, fighting over the money from the produce,” he said.
Sharon Namboza, the ERI coordinator for East Africa, said the programme would also help farmers become more independent in identifying markets and establishing relationships with buyers.
She said farmers were encouraged to conduct their own market research, including visiting potential markets in neighbouring countries, rather than relying entirely on development organisations to find buyers for them.
“If they want to do market research in Kenya, we facilitate them, they go to Kenya, they do the market research, they come back with the buyer's contacts, the buyer's locations, and at the end of the day, the farmers are doing most of the things on their own,” Namboza said.
The programme will also support farmers in meeting certification and quality requirements needed to access wider markets.
Namboza said farmers were involved in identifying challenges related to agricultural inputs, including counterfeit and poor-quality products, through policy dialogues involving farmers, input dealers and policymakers.
These dialogues are conducted at village and parish levels, extending to sub-county and district levels, and can lead to the development of local measures to address identified challenges.
The programme also promotes practical interventions, such as using tarpaulins during post-harvest handling to reduce losses and training farmers to identify and report crop pests to agricultural extension workers.