Rainwater Harvesting Along Dry River Valleys for Small Scale Irrigation and Livestock Use

The project set out to build community resilience to climate change by addressing food and water insecurity in Taita Taveta's arid and semi-arid lands — constructing sand dams and promoting on-farm soil and water conservation to improve crop and livestock production, while investing in pasture conservation to generate incomes. It aligned with Kenya's Vision 2030 agricultural priorities and the CRM Facility's objectives to improve citizen participation in natural resource governance.

Achievements: rapid community uptake of soil and water conservation and climate-smart technologies; a 'Greening with Age' campaign across 20 learning institutions that planted 5,000 trees and reached 2,496 students; 2 sand dams constructed; 15 model farms established; the Sauti ya Mkulima farmers' network launched; advocacy that influenced 2 county-level and 2 national-level policies; 5 farmers' field days held, one attended by the County Executive for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries; climate-adaptation awareness reaching 2,168 people (843 male, 1,325 female); 908 farms adopting soil and water conservation structures and a further 427 adopting fodder and pasture conservation; and 135 farmers trained as Trainers of Trainers in soil/water conservation and climate-smart technologies.