Component 2: Climate-Smart Value Chain Ecosystem Investments
This component focuses on supporting climate-smart value chain ecosystem investments identified as part of county, regional, and national-level value chain development plans and includes the following:
- Farmer Led Irrigation Development (FLID): Investments in water-related multi-community investments to support FLID both at farm and group level for improved productivity.
- Market access and Infrastructural development: Investments in market infrastructure for PVCs to improve market access.
- Data and digital investments: Scaling up partnership with DAT service providers’ mobilization, technical assistance, training, and digital equipment to access climate-smart TIMPs, climate resilience inputs etc.
- Research linkages, technical assistance, and institutional capacity: Strengthening of climate-smart TIMPs, supporting technical assistance for value chain development at various levels, and placement of and building the capacity of county-level implementation units to anchor project activities.
Sub-Component 2.1: Farmer-led irrigation development (FLID)
The objective of this sub-component is to enhance and expand the uptake of irrigation to increase the area under irrigation and improve the efficiency of existing small-scale irrigation schemes. This will lead to increased agricultural production ensuring smallholder farmers shift from subsistence to commercial market-oriented system. To support this objective, the sub-component focuses on climate-smart investments promoting farmer-led irrigation development (FLID). The FLID interventions remove/minimize critical constraints to the uptake and expansion of irrigation. The main constraints include access to efficient irrigation technologies, unreliable/unpredictable rainfall patterns, access to water harvesting infrastructure, access to affordable credit, effective marketing, and irrigation-related knowledge.
Sub-Component 2.2: Market Access and Infrastructure Development
This sub-component focuses on supporting an enabling market infrastructure development linked to prioritized VCs. The objective is to improve market competitiveness for smallholder farmers through reduced postharvest losses, strengthened value addition, improved information exchange between producers and other actors, improved logistics, and enhanced linkages with agribusiness SMEs and support for produce certification.
Investments under this sub-component are identified from VC development plans at county and regional levels and focus on developing co-financing models including Public Private Producer Partnerships (4Ps) investments, impact investments and multi-county collaborations led by private sector players. The sub-component also identifies underutilized high-potential market infrastructure for upgrading and facilitating long-term partnership agreements for FPOs.
Sub-Component 2.3 Data and Digital Investments
This sub-component supports climate adaptation planning by scaling up partnerships with DAT service providers including mobilization, technical assistance, training and capacity building and digital equipment that enables farmers to access climate information services, climate-smart TIMPs, climate resilience inputs, market information, digital finance and e-commerce. It also supports the strengthening of the existing Big Data platform at KALRO as the foundational database for insight-driven, more productive, resource-efficient and climate-resilient farming.
Sub-Component 2.4: Research linkages, technical assistance, and institutional capacity
The objective of this sub-component is to support KALRO strengthen climate-smart TIMPs, provide technical assistance for value chain development, and build capacity at county-level implementation units to anchor project activities. Research linkages (partnerships) with other research organizations is promoted to develop, disseminate, and scale up the adoption of proven TIMPs of the selected project value chains. At the end of the project, it is expected that at least 500 TIMPS will have been disseminated for adoption.