Overview 

Phase One (Oct 2015- Sept 2018)

The AVCD program successfully implemented the first three years’ phase from 1st October 2015 to the 30th September 2018.

Focusing on the livestock, dairy, staple crops root crops and staple drought tolerant crops value chains the program aims to continue to lift 326,000 households out of poverty, making them food secure and enabling their transition from subsistence to market-orientated farming.

Improved access to knowledge tools and inputs, ‘push forces’, combined with improved market linkages, policy environment, business development and financial services, ‘pull forces’, will drive inclusive economic, particularly agricultural growth, and improved food and nutrition security for women and children. In line with the Feed the Future strategy for Kenya for the medium term, it is expected that AVCD will lead to:

• An improved agricultural enabling environment: AVCD will produce seven policy briefs, providing empirical evidence to support policy decisions. It will also support 27 producer organizations and 18 private sector seed businesses gain management skills and information, and help to meet identified knowledge-based needs of value chain partners.
• Expanded markets and increased trade: Increased productivity resulting from expanded markets and increased trade will drive inclusive agricultural growth and economic development, increasing the value and volume of their products and their gross margins by at least 15%. In each value chain, immediate outcomes will be driven by increasing access to specific products, linking producers and processors to markets, and providing market information and prices to producers. Provided with ICT-based information system on product prices, the value chain actors will be helped organize themselves to enhance marketing and price negotiations. Farmers will receive support to undertake planning and business development activities, facilitating their transition to commercial farming.
• Improved productivity of selected value chains: Drawing on their research for development experience, the implementing centres will ensure that productivity enhancing technologies and innovations—such as improved crop varieties, livestock breed and improvement systems, agronomic practices, drought and disease resistant seeds, livestock vaccines and veterinary services— are widely applied by farmers.
• Improved access and diversity of food, and nutrition related behaviour: The selected value chains produce a wide variety of foods, sources of: protein (livestock products and grain legumes), starch (potatoes and sorghums), and vitamins (orange-fleshed sweet potatoes). By increasing the productivity and utilization of these crops, AVCD will improve access to, and diversity of, food consumed by 150,000 target households. It will also improve the food quality at household and market level by improving storage, processing, and cooking techniques. Cross-cutting issues of gender, climate change, and young people will be a key focus of AVCD. Women and young people will form a core target group in each value chain in efforts to promote enterprise development in recognition of their role in food production and nutrition in Kenya. AVCD will also will work with community organizations and households to promote women’s engagement in value chain activities and their control over incomes derived from their participation, and young people will play a key role in service delivery in the value chains.

 

Phase Two (Jan2019-Dec2020)

Ongoing Program Components and Targets

The livestock value chain will continue with scaling up technologies and innovations in animal health, range management and nutrition but in addition take on more activities on policy environment working at institutional level. This component is targeting to reach an additional 18,000beneficiaries, working closely with PREG partners in in the mandate counties in the two years,

The dairy value chain component will also continue with scaling up dairy technologies and innovations to increase productivity and strengthening capacity of farmer’s producer organizations to participate in the whole value chain development.  while working closely with the.  This component targets to reach 52,054 beneficiaries, working closely with other USAID funded projects such as Kenya Crops and Dairy Marketing Systems (KCDMS) on marketing and business development, during this phase.

The staples value chains components of potatoes and drought tolerant crops will continue with scaling up technologies and innovations to firm up establishment of seed system and increase productivity as well as market and business development.  The potatoes value chain components will work in in Bungoma and Taita Taveta and include establishment of farmers producer organizations in the start-up activities. This subcomponents targets to reach an additional 8,000 beneficiary during this phase.

The drought tolerant crops subcomponents cover green grams, sorghum, millets, pigeon peas, cow peas and ground nuts and will include Taita Taveta county and Kitui during this this phase.  This subcomponent is targeting an additional 35,000 beneficiaries in the next two years.

EXTENSION PHASE (JAN – SEP 2021)

Started in 2015, AVCD is a five-year program that was implemented in two phases of three years and two years. During the first three years the program achieved and in some instances, overachieved targets for planned activities. For instance, 318,362 households benefitted from the program, over and above the target of 256,937 households. These households are now food secure and either out of absolute poverty or on a pathway out of poverty.

The second two-year phase ended in December 2020 with the program achieving targets for some of the topline indicators. However due to the impact of COVID 19 pandemic related restrictions, the program did not achieve some targets.  

During this extension phase, the program targets to complete tasks affected by COVID 19 pandemic,  and also other tasks that were not foreseen in the design but have tremendous impact in the development of the respective value chains, key among them being: Establishment of Bulk Milk Chilling Plants; Development of County and National Legislations; and Building Human Capacity of County Government.

In late 2020, the program started four sub-activities at the request of the National Government, Council of Governors Agriculture Sector Committee and, the USAID/KEA:  Support to review the national legislations in the livestock sector; Support the Development of Kenya Livestock Master Plan; and Support to Council of Governors Agriculture Sector Secretariat; and Assessment of Conservancies in Kenya. These will also be completed during the extension phase.