Imagine a Kenya where vibrant urban markets overflow with indigenous greens, youth in peri-urban areas lead Agri-tech startups, and rural cooperatives thrive as they steward regenerative farming methods. This future was at the heart of a recent co-creation workshop in Kenya, uniting 35 food system leaders from Ministry of Agriculture, Glocolearning, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), SUN CSA and GAIN to chart pathways toward food systems diversification. Diversification has been widely identified as a strategy with great potential to build better resilience, nutrition, and equity across Kenya.
Why Diversification Matters
Food systems diversification is not just about growing more varieties of the same crops. A deeper approach is required, intertwining biodiversity, inclusive value chains, climate-smart practices, and equitable access to nutritious diets. As Ruth Okowa, GAIN Kenya Country Director, emphasized at the workshop,
Diversification is key to unlocking Kenya’s food future, linking farms to schools, policy to practice, and tradition to innovation.
Ruth Okowa Country Director GAIN Kenya
Visions of a Diversified Kenya
Workshop participants envisioned three distinct yet interconnected landscapes by 2050:
- Urban: Cities where vertical farms and circular economies reduce waste, while affordable, diverse foods reach every household through hygienic kiosks and delivery services. Urban planning integrates green spaces and school meal programs that celebrate local crops.
- Peri-Urban: Resilient hubs where youth-driven SMEs leverage AI and climate-smart tech. Centralized distribution centres slash post-harvest losses, while restored degraded lands bloom with regenerative agriculture.
- Rural: Thriving communities where farming is a source of pride, supported by cooperatives and seedbanks. Indigenous crops have regained prominence, and diversified livelihoods are attracting a new generation of farmers.
From Barriers to Breakthroughs
Despite this optimism, challenges loom. Fragmented policies, underfunded infrastructure, and limited access to markets or finance stifle progress. Many farmers lack tools for climate adaptation, while urban consumers grapple with the affordability of nutritious diets.
The workshop identified five catalytic strategies:
- Improving Policy Coherence: Bridge gaps between national and county policies, ensuring urban-rural synergies in infrastructure and planning.
- Empowering Local Networks: Strengthen cooperatives, seed banks, and youth groups through funding, digital tools, and capacity-building.
- Collective Awareness Campaigns: Leveraging storytelling, social media (e.g TikTok), school programs, and local champions to shift consumer mindsets.
- Supporting Local Innovation: Support SMEs and startups with grants, training, and tech hubs to scale regenerative practices and food delivery solutions.
- Participatory Research and Feedback: Encouraging collaboration between local communities and researchers to co-develop solutions that are adaptive and context specific.
A Symphony of Collaboration
The energy was palpable as participants committed to action. Immediate next steps include sharing workshop insights at global forums like the UNFSS +4, launching a multi-stakeholder platform under FOLU (Food and Land Use Coalition), and rolling out food systems transformation training programs offered by Wageningen University.
As one participant noted,
“Diversification is NOT a solo journey, it’s a symphony of collaboration.”
From policymakers to farmers, tech innovators to parents, every actor has a role. By weaving these threads together, Kenya is not just reimagining its food systems, it is planting seeds for a healthier, more resilient future.
At GAIN, we are poised to support the process by building alliances with governments, businesses, development partners, research institutions, academia, and communities to transform food systems and deliver healthier diets for all. Through these alliances, GAIN will provide technical, financial, and policy support to key players in food systems. In Kenya, key areas for GAIN include supporting the development and implementation of policies geared towards food system transformation, increasing the demand for nutritious and healthy diets, strengthening industrial fortification and biofortification, and strengthening SMEs supplying safe, nutritious and healthy diets.
GAIN focuses on protecting those most vulnerable to shocks: those living on USD 3.2 or less per day, those belonging to social categories that exacerbate vulnerability based on age, gender, or social exclusion. Indeed, food systems must become more diverse and locally sustainable to be safer and more resilient while reaching those most vulnerable to malnutrition.