Environmental diplomacy as a green economy for Kenya; the impact of climate change on agriculture, 1963-2012

Abstract

Kenya's agricultural sector employs over 75 percent of the workforce, directly and indirectly accounts for approximately 51 percent of Kenya's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and has the capacity for significant growth - if irrigation, road, agricultural mputs, extension, marketing, and health/nutrition constraints can be addressed. Because the livelihoods of large numbers of food insecure households in rural areas are based on agriculture, improving agricultural productivity and increasing farmers' incomes are keys to achieving food security and improved nutritional status. This paper seeks to look at environmental diplomacy as a solution to the agricultural sector in Kenya through the numerous attempts to save the environment as they globally seek answers from the treaties and conventions held. Also the study will reveal that Kenya's relatively high per capita income level hides the fact that over 50 percent of the population is living in poverty. Despite a relatively moderate population growth rate of an estimated 2.6 percent), access to water and land resources is constrained, and most farmers practice rain-fed agriculture on small plots with degraded soils. High potential areas produce significant staple food stocks, yet there are consistently two to four million people receiving food aid each year. Thus we look at climate change as we try to establish the impacts and the measures to fight climate change in Kenya. The study uses interviews across the country and mostly in Rift valley and western which are predominantly Kenya's agricultural heavyweights to provide insights and important realities of current environmental challenges. The study looks at the agriculture as the major economy earner in Kenya and environmental diplomacy as a great solution.