The Stitching IKEA Foundation awarded Kilimo Trust the R4iCSA project on 1st July 2020. This 2-year €996,765 pilot project will concentrate on introducing regenerative agriculture in rice-based farming systems through sustainable rice cultivation, inter/rotational cropping with leguminous species and management of crop waste streams.  As the lead partner, Kilimo Trust will be responsible for any subcontracted work that may be necessary for the delivery of the project.

Project Goal    

Increased adoption of sustainable rice production practices for 5,000 smallholder rice farmers and other value chain actors in Kenya and Uganda  

Target Beneficiaries

The project will work with 5,000 smallholder farmers comprising 3,000 in Eastern Uganda and 2,000 in Kenya (1,000 in Kisumu County and another 1,000 farmers in Busia County). In each country, the composition by gender will be 50% women, 50% males and 40% youth. The selected farmers will be characterized with the following: household land size not exceeding 5 acres, rice farm size ranging between 0.5 to 2 acres and their farms situated in Agroecological locations suitable for rice growth yield gap of at least 50%, and they belong to a farmer rice group, with inadequate market access, and rice being the major household livelihood source.

Project Objectives:

1. To promote the use of innovative technologies and management practices for sustainable rice farming systems
2. To generate empirical evidence of the developed and tested business models in the utilization of products and by-products of rice farming systems to drive scaling up the models

Project Outcomes:

1. Increased adoption of sustainable rice practices (SRPs)
2. Business cases on utilization of products and by-products from rice and other complementary farm enterprises
3. Adaptability and economic benefits of rice-legumes (cow peas, chickpeas and short duration pigeon peas) rotational system documented.
4. Evidence based knowledge products on circular and regenerative models to influence policy shift

Expected Results:

9. At least 10% increase in yields of rice as result of adoption of sustainable rice practices
10. Improved soil health status in the rice fields
11. Feasibility analyses for investment in different rice products produced
12. Business cases and plans for investment in utilization of rice by-products developed and published 
13. At least 50% of target rice farmers are using sustainable rice practices (SRPs) and other technologies
14. Diversified income sources from rice products and by-products especially for women and youth 
15. At least 4 rice millers have developed business plans to implement business cases on rice by-products
16. Rice by-products prototypes developed and pre-tested for commercial viability by at least two technical institutions.

Stakeholder groups and collaborating projects and partners

Kilimo Trust will be the lead implementer working with both public and private sector partners (mainly rice processors/off-takers, providers of mechanization services and machinery fabricators, Government Ministries of Agriculture and Industrialization, Farmer Cooperatives, Financial Institutions, Competitive Africa Rice Initiative in East Africa (CARI-EA); Government of Uganda Farm Income Enhancement and Forestry Conservation-Phase Two (FIEFOC-II) project, Africa Harvest Rice Program in Kenya and Uganda, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization(KALRO)  and Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organization(NARO), particularly ZARDI Buginyanya in Eastern Uganda. 

In the area of regenerative and precision agriculture, Kilimo Trust will work closely with Egerton University and Buginyanya ZARDI in Kenya and Uganda respectively, among other private and public players in both countries to demonstrate innovations and research for possible upscaling.