The Partnership for Child Development, Imperial College London alongside Dutch development organisation, SNV are working with Kenya’s Ministries of Agriculture and Education to increase the access of coastal smallholder farmers to local markets supplying school meals in Kenya’s HGSF programme.  

In the target counties of Kilifi and Lamu, PCD together with SNV have launched the intervention to address challenges of farmer produce being sourced from large distances within Kenya and even outside of the country in neighbouring Tanzania.  To ensure producers in the counties are secured of a reliable income and livelihood, so the "Home Grown" in HGSF is maximised, the project aims to achieve a more localised supply chain - to, in effect, boost the link between smallholder farmers, traders and recipient schools.

Building Farmer Capacity

Together, PCD and SNV have begun gathering smallholder farmers in groups to boost their capacity to operate as commercial enterprises which can competitively bid to supply the HGSF programme.  

The project, among other activities planned, will support these farmer groups to develop a range of techniques including: 

• Agricultural practices in the field
• Post-harvest value addition processes such as drying
• Cleaning and grading

To increase farmer capacity to safely and securely store their produce Grain Business Hubs will also being established to act as a facility through which agricultural input and output services are provided to increase smallholders’ profit margins.

The intervention is hoped to provide useful lessons which can steer the development of the ‘Home Grown’ in Home Grown School Feeding across other regions in Kenya.