Presentation at International for for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Headquarters in Rome, Italy on 6 December 2017

1. Assessment of Impact of Sorghum for
Multiple Uses (SMU) Value Chain Project on
Smallholder Farmers in Kenya
Bolanle Titilola, Olawale Olayide & Doreen Marangu

2. Introduction /Objectives
• Kenya is a country with intermittent drought
• Large proportion of Kenyan population annually dependent on food aid
• The SMU value chain project was implemented from 2011 to 2015 with the main
objective of reducing food insecurity and poverty of farmers in Eastern Kenya.
• Objectives of the study are:
i. to determine the contribution of the SMU Project to improvement in income
of the smallholder farmers; and
ii. to determine the contribution of the SMU Project to improvement in food
security of the smallholder farmers’ households in Kenya.

3. Results
• 60% of beneficiary are female
• More than 65% aged between 18 and 45
• SMU Contribution to Income:
Beneficiary Farmers Non-beneficiaries Baseline Studies
Average Total Cultivated land 1.7 ha 1.3 ha n/a
Average Sorghum cultivated
land
0.9 ha 0.6 ha 0.3ha
Average Sorghum Yield/ha 977 kg/ha 381 kg/ha n/a
Average Sorghum Price/Kg 33.3 Ksh 31.8 Ksh 28 Ksh
Average Gross Margin 21,509 Ksh 2,769 Ksh n/a

4. Results contd.
When respondents were asked to rate their income situations, 80% of beneficiaries
rated ‘better off’ while 11% rated ‘the same’.
SMU Project contribution to Food Security: SMU Impact Calendar
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Before After

5. Results contd.
• Beneficiaries are now consuming more of sorghum from 12% to 29%
• Beneficiaries rated agronomy training and improved seed supply as
most impactful
• Beneficiaries felt their expectation in joining the project had been
met by 48.18%

6. Conclusion and Recommendations
• The SMU project has been effective in improving the food security and income of
the smallholder farmers in the project areas.
• Diversification of the end user markets is urgently required to stimulate
competition and further open up additional avenues for trade.
• There is need to establish more value chain platforms, plan a monitoring and
evaluation system to draw lessons for future improvement of the value chain and
for up scaling.
• Intensive campaign, training and workshop on ability of sorghum as a substitute
raw-material should be organized for the food, feed and other relevant industries
• The number of aggregators and sub aggregators need to be increased for the
sustainability of the project.

7. My experience with the implementing partner of the SMU project, Africa Harvest
Biotech (AH) thought me so much about the importance of building partnership
for sustainable development. I saw first hand, the level of commitment and
perseverance needed to achieve the objectives of any development initiative. I
understand the need to share experiences rather than impose ideas.
Partnership for
Development
Sharing Ideas Team building Team Work
Listening skill Value addition