Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa are particularly vulnerable to climate change, because they mostly rely on rain-fed agriculture instead of irrigation. In Kenya for instance, the short rainy season typically lasts from October to December, after which the weather becomes too dry to support growing crops. Every year has its own challenges but thanks to climate change, farmers are now facing greater difficulties.

As World leaders meet for COP27 from 6^th to 18^th Nov in Egypt, communities around the world are grappling with the compounded impacts of a global pandemic, growing pressures from climate crisis, high energy and fertilizer prices, and protracted conflicts, which have disrupted production and supply chains and dramatically increased global food insecurity, especially for the most vulnerable.

Currently, millions of Kenyans desperately need water and food due to what can be described as the worst drought to hit the country in the decade. According to the National Drought Mangement Authority (NDMA) the drought situation continues to worsen in 20 Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) counties. The food insecurity is primarily driven by a combination of shocks, including a fourth successive below average rainy season which was poorly distributed in space and short-lived resulting in below average crop production to near crop failure and poor livestock production; localized resource-based conflict; and high food prices as a result of the war in Ukraine and low in-country production.

The effects of climate change on agriculture to the African farmer can result in lower crop yields and poor nutritional quality due to drought, heat waves, cold snaps and frost, severe storms and flooding as well as increases in pests and plant diseases. Recently, Sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed the spread of fall armyworms, an invasive caterpillar that can devastate maize yields when left unchecked. We still don’t know for sure what caused this outbreak, but some scientists have linked its spread with climate change.

What can African farmers do to adapt  to the effects of climate change?

While the future may look uncertain, it’s never too late to reverse the course. Governments, non-govermental institutions, and private sector groups need to include support for smallholder farmers in their wider efforts to combat climate change.

• COP 27 is an opportunity to reset our relationship with Nature Based Solutions, including regenerative agriculture, have a central role in countries’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and national adaptation plans.
• Governments should increase investments in irrigation to ensure that farmers will maintain yields even when the weather is uncertain; invest in better roads to help connect markets which would help farmers sell their produce at fair prices; and invest in upgraded crop-storage facilities to help prevent spoilage and food waste.
• Improved farmers’ behavior by getting back to the traditional ways of living naturally sustainable lives. This entails preserving biodiversity which is essential for food security and nutrition; growing native species of crops that are better adapted and are often more resistant to drought, altitude, flooding, or other extreme
• Enable farmers to access financing, tools, and training.
• Water harvesting, storage and efficient use are key to fighting food insecurity. There is need for a paradigm shift from rain-fed agriculture to Water-harvesting and storage can be done at community and household level. Community owned/grassroot innovations such as Emu Sacco are useful in resource mobilization from governments, donors and community to finance water security.

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Emu Sacco contributes to SDG1 by building the resilience of the small holder farmers and those in vulnerable situations through reducing their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events such as prolonged droughts by financing infrastructures for water harvesting, storage and efficient use.  The Sacco advocates for a paradigm shift from rain-fed type of farming to irrigation farming.

Goal 2: Zero Hunger

Emu Sacco empowers its members to have sustainable food production systems and practice resilient agricultural practices that increase production. This helps maintain ecosystems and strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and progressively improves land and soil quality.

Goal 6:  Clean Water and Sanitation for All

Emu Sacco substantially contributes to the realization of SDG6 through increasing rain water harvesting and storage and water-use efficiency. The Sacco avails modern farming technologies that enhance water use efficiency in irrigation (drips, mulching papers). The Sacco collaborates with MKEWP, WRUAs , CWPs and other CSO’s in the landscape to implement integrated water resources management in the Ewaso Basin. To date over 80,000 cubic meters of rain water harvesting structures have been completed with financial and technical support from Emu Sacco.

Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

Emu Sacco has partnered with Sun-Culture who avail green energy technologies, such as solar panels for domestic use and solar powered pumps for irrigation use. The Sacco works with the Sistema Company, which provides bio-digesters to farmers to harness biogas for cooking from animal manure and other organic waste.

Goal 13: Climate Action

Emu Sacco conducts awareness creation seminars and trainings to its members on smart water for agriculture and climate change mitigation and adaptation forums to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity of small holder farmers to climate-related hazards and natural disasters.

Goal 15:  Life on Land

Emu Sacco enhances the global support efforts to ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements. The Sacco supports its members to acquire on-farm water storage structures that can be used during the dry seasons thus ensuring fair and equitable water sharing for downstream users. The Sacco also works with MKEWP to ensure water resources and water towers are conserved to ensure their capacities to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development are maintained.

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Successive years of drought and other production shocks in Kenya have reduced crop productivity and undermined livelihoods, leaving smallholder farmers like Elijah and his family increasingly food insecure and vulnerable,  making recovery more difficult.

To help feed her family after their own food production ran out; Elijah’s wife would do casual labor, working in the fields of other farmers to earn 2 kg of maize meal per day. However, doing this hired labor left her with little time to do her household chores and tend to her fields. In years of severe drought, Elijah and his family were dependent on food aid distributions when their food stocks ran out.

“Now, casual labor is history!” Before, I was in dire poverty and stayed at home during the dry season. Now, we have food all-year round and do not depend on food aid. I can pay my children’s school fees for both my daughter who is in secondary, and my son in university.”

Last year, Elijah’s life changed with the arrival of Light for the World, a not for profit organization that supports people living with disabilities in the various counties of Kenya. Light for the World NGO identified Elijah as a promising farmer living with visual impairment and came through to finance him with a grant of Kes 80,000 to cater for dam liner purchase and transport costs. Regardless of Elijah not being a member of Emu Sacco, the Sacco supported him with free welding and free dam liner installation services while he and his family financed excavation costs for his water pan.

Through their support Elijah was supported to acquire a 500,000-liter water pan that is properly lined with 0.5mm gauge dam liner purchased and installed through Emu Sacco. Elijah can now irrigate crops during the dry season, allowing him to harvest up to three times a year. Since getting the water pan, Elijah grew a variety of crops under irrigation, including tomatoes, onions, cabbage and maize.

His wife also started a small kitchen garden where she grows kale and spinach, and supplies to shops at a trading center near them. This earns them daily up-keep money.  After feeding his family, Elijah sold the surplus vegetables and maize in the market, making in three months what he had never made in his life. Elijah purchased a water pump to harness water from the pan to his farm for faster and more effective irrigation.

When asked about the future, Elijah is convinced that he will be at a better stage of his life in three years. He plans to expand his poultry and fruit farming business, and wants to supply eggs, chicken meat, and fruits to nearby centers and the Nanyuki market. The future is indeed bright for Elijah and his family.

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Dried up water lagas and barren agricultural fields are now dominating Marsabit County. Women are forced to walk for several kilometers in search of water. The little agricultural land is covered in dust, with carcasses spread across the ground. Recent reports have indicated that about 2.8 million Kenyans are at the brink of starvation should climate change continue to bite hard. President Uhuru Kenyatta declared the current drought a national disaster. The situation in Marsabit continues to be monitored closely by government agencies like the National Drought Management Authority NDMA. Locals are asking for immediate help with water and food.

At the heart of the drought period, locals share the same water points with animals. The families also share the little food they have with their animals, in the hope to keep them alive. Many children have turned to be full-time herders. They are forced to travel many kilometers in search of pasture and water for their livestock. The majority are migrating even as far as the Ethiopian border. Women and children travel in the late evening to search for water; they sleep there to get water in the early morning before going back home.

Mitigation measures include distribution of food, supplementary feeding, a school feeding program, enhancement of integrated outreach programs in health facilities, and community sensitization on afforestation.

How Is IREMO (Indigenous Resource Management Organization) Assisting?

Indigenous Resource Management Organization (IREMO) is a registered nonprofit making organization that supports communities to secure their basic rights and services as right holders from duty bearers for their own development, initiate and manage their own resources.

The organization supports individuals or groups whose rights are infringed either as a result of traditional practices or by state. IREMO primary targets are the poor and disadvantaged community members (especially women and girls) who are supported through their own ideas and effort in order to uplift themselves from their current situation.

IREMO plans to support these marginalized women some living with disabilities and others FGM survivors who have had to live less dignified lives in the past. The NGO also wants to save women from the long-distance walk to fetch water by helping them acquire well lined water pans in their homes for easy access of livestock, and for household use which will translate to better childcare services.

Emu Sacco is working closely with IREMO to support 5 groups of vulnerable women to acquire good quality, long-lasting dam liners and shade-nets, welding and installation services for their water pans.

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At the beginning of September last year, the Kenya declared a state of disaster on the worsening drought conditions, with government spokesperson, Kanze Dena, saying in the official statement that the government would “assist affected households with water and relief food distribution as well as livestock uptake.”

According to the NDMA, drought-driven food insecurity in Kenya has been a result of poor rainy seasons and pro-longed dry seasons. The rainy season between October and December last year produced low levels of rain, and with the drought experienced from January this year to date worsens the situation. The association highlighted that citizens across 23 counties in the country would be most impacted and will be in “urgent need” of food aid over the next six months. Food insecurity in Kenya is a rapidly growing issue as the country’s drought conditions could lead to an estimated 2.1 million citizens facing starvation; this is according to the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA). The dry conditions have impacted agricultural harvests that are an essential food source for Kenyans.

Emu Sacco has been sensitizing its members and farmers from the Ewaso Basin to invest in water harvesting infrastructures. The Sacco has developed a water loan dubbed Maji Chap Chap that is specifically targeted at competent small holder farmers with a rain-fed production history, who aspire to an irrigated production future.

Emu Sacco has partnered with various service providers specialized in the production and supply of water infrastructure (Afro Drip Limited, Silver spread Hardware’s and Sun Culture). Through these arrangements, Emu Sacco links its members and non-members to purchase products from the three firms. Members benefit from quality products and discounted prices. Emu Sacco has a technical department which works closely with service providers to provide new low-cost technologies for water storage and efficient water use. The service providers offer professional installation services to members taking the Maji Chap Chap loan. These services include initial site survey and design, developing bills of quantities for members’ upcoming projects, welding and installation of dam liners, drip kit irrigation fitting, concrete tank construction and repairs, rain gutters and green energy technologies.

Efficient irrigation technologies helps small scale farmers improve their livelihoods by allowing for a more efficient use of inputs, such as water and fertilizer, and by enhancing the yields and quality of the crops farmers grow. Many successes have been recorded and reported from the farmers supported by Emu Sacco to acquire water storage and irrigation technologies.

For Instance, last year we supported Susan Wanjiru to acquire a 2000 cubic meters pan in her farm for irrigation. She was able to harvest rainwater during the rainy seasons between March to May and October to Nov.

She reports that this has enabled her to expand the area of her farm. Before acquiring the dam, she could only farm ½ acre of land and still she would experience losses due to un-even distribution of rains. But after acquiring the dam and being water secure, she now farms 3 acres. She explains that for instance during the dry spell experienced this year between January to date, she has been producing onions and tomatoes. Thus, she has been able to get a ready market locally for her produce and generate good income.

Investments in efficient irrigation play a key role in generating marked improvements in farmers’ incomes and standards of living, especially for small farmers who are the biggest contributors to agriculture in our country.

Emu Sacco is a partner with financial institutions, donors, governments, farmers’ groups, and equipment manufacturers to facilitate access to efficient irrigation technologies that transform the livelihoods of small farmers and promote highly productive, yet climate-friendly agriculture. The Sacco so far has a membership 300 and has assisted the installation of 31 water pans since its inception. The total volume of water secured so far is 22 million liters.

For more information about us and what we do please visit:

The Laikipia Forum Website

Contact us on 0700 014 239.

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