Kenya Project - FEnDrylands (2023-2024)

Sustainable food environment for food and nutrition security in eastern African drylands – a case study of opportunities and boundaries in Turkana County, Kenya

Donor: fiat panis foundation, Ulm, Germany

https://www.stiftung-fiat-panis.de/de/

Project partner: Egerton University, Kenya and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Kenya; project lead originally Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

The FEnDrylands project aims at contributing to achieving better nutrition among small scale farming communities in eastern African drylands through food environment transformation. The focus is on youth’ perception of their natural and built-in food environment since on the one hand they are not well listened to, yet they are future consumers and thus at high risk of suffering from various forms of malnutrition and consequently non-communicable diseases at an advanced age.

In addition, evidence on the opportunities and boundaries of own vegetable and fruit production for food and nutrition security in arid- and semi-arid regions will be collected, considering cascading climate risks, pest and diseases pressures, socio-economic dynamics and cultural dietary norms. It will support future scale out of “best locally adapted” agroecological practices for, specifically, drylands and will, based on the lessons learned on vegetable and fruit farming in Turkana County, in particular focus on the role of indigenous fruits and vegetables to complement existing diets.