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Kenya National Agriculture Research Project

The Kenya National Agricultural Research Program (NARP) is a USAID-funded project to improve Kenya's food security by helping to develop a well managed National Agricultural Research System to provide appropriate technologies to the agricultural sector. The Project is consistent with the mission of the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources of the University of Missouri, and provides major opportunities to further internationalize curriculum and faculty in the College. The contract includes collaboration with the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (KARI) to provide assistance in several areas.

Introduction

NARP is designed to increase the capacity of the Kenya agricultural research system by enhancing the capabilities of the institution charged with the entire spectrum of agricultural research in that country: the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). It is a collaborative effort of the Government of Kenya and a number of foreign donors, including the United States Agency for International Development. USAID has taken responsibility for providing technical assistance for KARI's program in maize and sorghum research and putting in place the management infrastructure suitable for an institution with this special mandate. A significant part of USAID's technical assistance effort is carried out via a contract with the MidAmerica International Agricultural Consortium (MIAC). MIAC is composed of the five Land Grant Universities in the central part of the United States: Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, University of Nebraska and the University of Missouri. For the NARP, the University of Missouri serves as the lead institution for MIAC which means that it has responsibility for the day-to-day management of the project.

Background

Agriculture has been and will remain in the foreseeable future, the mainstay of the Kenyan economy. In the face of a population growth rate (nearly 4%) which will increase the number of Kenyans to more than 35 million people and a shortage of arable land which can be put into production agriculture, Kenya has several other critical problems--improving productivity in output of food crops, increasing foreign exchange earnings, absorbing more labor and generating greater farm income from higher value crops. Yet, the rate of growth in the agricultural sector has been declining since the late 1970s.

Numerous factors have contributed to this decline. The specific focus of the NARP are the problems caused by the lack of a well coordinated, efficient research system capable of producing effective new technologies which can boost the productivity of Kenyan agriculture. The Government of Kenya has recognized these shortcomings and in the mid 1980s, began to address them and their potential solutions in a series of studies. The culmination of these was the publication of a plan by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development to reorganize the research system. The proposal called for the consolidation of research activities under a completely restructured Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, the strengthening of management and planning capacity in the research system, a rationalization of the work load and gradual reduction of the number of research stations, and a prioritization of research problems to be addressed by the system. The report constituted a blueprint for institutional reform and the NARP is the implementing device which is putting those recommendations into practice.

Description of the Project and the Role of MIAC/MU

The USAID financed portion of the project is an institution building effort designed to strengthen the managerial and technical capacity of KARI, so that it can produce quality results which will enhance the productivity and output of Kenyan agriculture. This is part of a multi-donor effort to help the GOK implement the reorganization of its agricultural research system. Phase I of the USAID portion of the NARP has addressed four components.

Component 1: Planning and Management

The purpose of this component is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Kenya's agricultural research system through instituting new management and administrative procedures in KARI. Management systems within the present national agricultural research system were virtually nonexistent with research being conducted under several different ministries and management systems. Under the restructured KARI, all previously dispersed research functions have been integrated within one management organization. The USAID portion of the project has provided one long term specialist in research management, evaluation and planning to advise the director of KARI and the appropriate deputy directors on the means and techniques of implementing a government program of prioritized research. Short term technical support has been provided to assist KARI with the design, installation and on-the-job training in the use of critical management systems vital for any effectively functioning research bureaucracy. A major portion of the latter effort was subcontracted to PWA which has operated under the supervision of the MIAC/MU chief of party and worked closely with the KARI administrative team.

Component 2: Maize & Sorghum/Millet Research Program

This component has focused on technical and material assistance to the KARI national maize and sorghum/millet commodity research programs. Technical assistance personnel (long term plus short term) have been based at Kitale, Nairobi and Embu and have assisted their Kenyan scientific counterparts in the design, execution and monitoring of the national course grain research activities. These long term technical assistance personnel have a major and continuing role in the development of Kenyan counterpart scientists. Project personnel have also assisted KARI technical and managerial staff to develop a system of adaptive testing, including on-farm work, able to produce up-to-date recommendations for the varied agro-ecological zones in Kenya thereby maximizing the potential of improved maize and sorghum/millet varieties.

Note: Maize, actually white maize, is the staple food crop in Kenya but is grown in a number of areas for which it is not particularly well suited. One of the underlying goals of the project is to explore the potential of substituting sorghum for maize production in those areas but this may involve significantly altering dietary habits as relatively little sorghum is now eaten as human food although it is used for other purposes.

Component 3: Human Resource Development

A serious deficiency in KARI is the dearth of adequately trained scientists and managers. This component has addressed that need by providing on-the-job training and targeted study tours for managers and scientists as well as Master's and Ph.D. training for Kenyan agricultural scientists. The latter will initially be in support of manpower development for the maize and sorghum/millet programs for selected scientific disciplines such as breeding, agronomy and plant pathology. Approximately 30 Master's and 16 Ph.D. candidates will be trained in the first phase of the project.

Component 4: Agriculture Research Fund

The final component of the NARP is an agricultural research fund to be managed by a specialized staff within the new KARI. The fund has two funding windows; the first for contracting with private or university researchers to conduct research needed to supplement KARI programs; the second to provide grants for innovative, problem oriented research proposals generated by private sector agriculture organizations and Kenya university researchers. The objective of the fund is twofold: (1) to foster collaborative scientific linkages between the three elements of the research community--KARI, local universities and the agricultural private sector and, (2) to expand the opportunities for the private sector research on high value commodities with potential for increased foreign exchange earnings and labor absorption. The MIAC/MU contract has not actually administered the research fund but instead has provided technical assistance to KARI to enable them to set up appropriate management procedures (proposal solicitation, evaluation, monitoring and accountability) in order to operate the fund effectively.

Phase II Update

Phase II of the project begun July 1, 1992 and allows activities to continue for five additional years. During this time support is directed toward consolidating the gains made during Phase I and allow for new thrusts to be undertaken. Specifically, Phase II continue support to KARI's planning and management systems and to the maize and sorghum/millet research programs. A new commodity thrust in horticulture, with particular emphasis on producing for the export market, was initiated and modest support is planned for small ruminant research. The Agricultural Research Fund is now a fully functioning entity and only modest inputs are planned for it.

Key inputs for Phase II are technical assistance (17 person years long term plus substantial amounts of short term); graduate degree training (12 Ph.D.s, 16 M.S.); short term non-degree training; and purchase of research and field equipment. USAID expects to allocate approximately $15,000,000 to Phase II activities with approximately $13,000,000 targeted for the MIAC/MU contract. It is hoped that additional funds can be allocated later to support work in biotechnology, additional graduate degree training, and dissemination of research results.

Phase I and Phase II together will result in a project which is very significant as evidenced by the following:

Total contract value over $25,000,000
More than 35 years of long term technical assistance
Procurement of $2.5 m of research equipment
Training of approximately 30 Ph.D.s and 45 M.S. candidates

However, the key impact is the opportunity it affords the University of Missouri to play a pivotal role in the development of a key country in Africa and the long term relationship that involvement will stimulate.

Conclusion

The Kenya NARP is an exciting project. It was particularly attractive to MIAC/MU because it was conceived as a long term (20 years) effort and emphasized those things which Land Grant Universities can do well--research, graduate training and institution building. It has and will provide numerous opportunities for faculty involvement both through short and long term technical assistance assignments and through the advising of Kenyan students (e.g., many Ph.D. students do their dissertation research in Kenya). In these terms, MIAC and MU view the project as having positive benefits for all parties and welcome the opportunity to develop a long term set of relationships with one of the key nations in East Africa.