Enabling Agroecology
Lead Organization:
Farm Input Promotions Africa Ltd
Partner Organizations:
We will continue our partnership with County governments of Kakamega and Busia, and National government through Ministry of agriculture, Ministry of Environment and Ministry of gender, youth and social inclusion. Research and Regulatory organizations including Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) are also key partners we intend to continue working with.
Community of Practice:
Countries:
Kenya
Duration:
6/2025—6/2028
Overview:
In previous phases, FIPS has advanced agroecological (AE) food-system transformation by working directly with farmers to co-develop practical solutions, adapt biophysical options, and pilot tools for landscape transformation. Building on its farmer-led research (FRN) model, FIPS created and tested five FRN process guides—including new modules on trade-offs and vision assessment—with 30 farmer groups. These guides have helped farmers, researchers, and extension workers identify barriers, test new ideas, and co-create strategies for AE adoption. By embedding FRNs into Village-Based Advisor (VBA) networks, FIPS has multiplied impact at the community level, enhancing capacity for farmer-centered innovation.
Through partnerships and strategic engagement, FIPS has also expanded access to funding and resources for AE practices. The organization successfully enrolled non-conventional donors to support farmer-led research and drew interest from market-focused funders, leading to USAID/SoC support for 112 FRN groups. Co-creation efforts have resulted in significant adaptation of practices, such as Bokashi fast compost, which improved adoptability from 7% to 50% in just six months. Sharing FRN learnings with other initiatives enabled scaling to 7,900 farmers adopting Bokashi, 60,000 soil pH tests conducted, and 40 agrodealers now supplying lime in previously underserved regions. Collaborations with partners like Manor House and KALRO further spread AE approaches, while FIPS’ evidence-sharing influenced county governments, NGOs, and other system actors in soil health management and ecological solutions.
Looking ahead, FIPS aims to address critical gaps and opportunities in scaling agroecology. Key priorities include exploring how soil health tools—especially for soil carbon—can energize adoption, enable monitoring, and potentially link to carbon credit markets. FIPS also seeks to test system-level approaches to scale practices that increase soil organic matter and promote ecological pesticides like Tephrosia, alongside developing viable business models for AE enterprises. Additional opportunities lie in targeting inclusive markets that value healthy AE-grown foods and generating evidence of how FRN guides benefit conventional projects. Central research questions will focus on understanding barriers and enablers of adoption across farmer groups, the long-term productivity and soil health benefits of AE options, the role of soil diagnostics in adaptation and uptake, and the broader influence of FRNs as they are integrated into other projects.
Grant Aims:
This project aims to reduce barriers and strengthen enablers for the uptake of agroecological (AE) approaches among smallholder farmers and AE businesses. By identifying and analyzing barriers and opportunities related to soil health, ecological pesticides, and high-value nutritious products, the project will co-create and test adaptations with farmers, AE enterprises, and other stakeholders. These efforts will be complemented by the development of scalable business cases for AE enterprises, as well as training and facilitation guides that embed lessons learned into farmer research networks, extension systems, and partner organizations. The project also builds capacity through advanced degrees, ensuring a new generation of researchers and practitioners can lead this transformation. The overall outcome will be increased knowledge and uptake of AE practices among farmers and stronger participation by AE businesses in localized, resilient food systems.
In parallel, the project will strengthen knowledge sharing and collaboration to accelerate the scaling of agroecological innovations. Building on past co-created tools and approaches—such as farmer research network (FRN) methods, soil health practices like Bokashi and lime microdosing, pest management with Tephrosia, and landscape tools—FIPS will share new and updated knowledge across its projects and with wider partners. Key system stakeholders will be convened to review progress, identify scaling strategies, and build support for AE transitions. Monitoring and evaluation will assess how this knowledge is being used, who is adopting it, and whether equity considerations are addressed in practice. By documenting impacts across FIPS, CRFS, and partner initiatives, the project will demonstrate how co-created AE options can spread more widely, fostering collaboration, influencing policy, and ensuring agroecological solutions scale effectively through Mission Grow and other networks.
Outputs and Outcomes:
Outputs and Outcomes:
Objective 1: To reduce barriers and enhance enablers for uptake of agroecological approaches
Output 1.1: Reports describing:
- Barriers/enablers for farmers and AE-businesses related to soil-health (carbon, testing, service-provision), ecological-pesticides, high-value nutritious products (leafy vegetables, fruits, feeds, poultry);
- Hypotheses on how to reduce/enhance them;
- Adaptations co-created and tested with farmers/ AE-businesses/ Stakeholders;
- Learning on whether and how barriers/enablers were addressed.
Output 1.2a: Business case developed for AE-businesses at various scales of adoption, considering supply, demand, marketing.
Output 1.2b: Business case validated for AE-businesses, adapted and improved.
Output 1.3: Training/facilitation guides developed using barrier/enabler learning that support scaling through extensionists, FRN-groups, partners, AE-businesses.
Output 1.4: Two Msc. Degrees and one PhD
Outcome 1.1: Increased knowledge and uptake of AE approaches among smallholder farmers and across local agri-food-system actors and stakeholders
Outcome 1.2: AE-businesses and other stakeholders actively contributing to transformation towards localised AE-food systems.
Objective 2: To share co-created knowledge (about FRN and AE approaches) with projects and partners and assess how that co-created knowledge is used
Strategies developed for sustainable AE scaling of working options, relationships and networking (Report on barriers and enablers of AE scaling)
FIPS will share new co-created knowledge and updated formerly co-created AE knowledge with FIPS projects and other partners. Examples of formerly co-created knowledge include: FRN tools, Soil Method for FAW, Soil Health methods – Bokashi, Microdosed Lime, Soil testing methods, Tephrosia, Landscape Tools, etc).
Output 2.1 Report describing key system-stakeholders identified and convened to review progress and gain buy-in and support to scaling AE approaches.
Output 2.2: M&E Plan to assess how co-created knowledge is being used by other projects and partners, including qualitative and quantitative information where possible.
Output 2.3 Reports describing qualitative information and quantitative data about use of co-created knowledge by other projects and partners (These should look at the WHO is using what and why and whether barriers and enables were effectively addressed when deployed at wider scale (relating to DEI issues of gender/ youth etc).
Output 2.4: Report describing how Co-created FRN and AE tools and approaches are impacting projects within FIPS, CRFS and influencing partners and stakeholders.
Outcome 2.1: Increased collaboration and knowledge sharing with other projects and partners.
Outcome 2.2; AE options (current and post phase) scaling through Mission Grow and other partner.