Cheers and Challenges of Conservation Agriculture in Kenya

The session will focus on highlighting and sharing with the participants the lessons learned from implementing two food security programs promoting CA principles in Central Kenya in the last 4-5 years. Even though we are starting to see positive results and identifying future potential of farmers adopting CA principles in the target areas in Kenya, we realize there are also limitations and challenges to the CA principles that need to be mentioned. At the end of the session, some recommendations will also be given including how to best integrate CA in ongoing community development programs with other sectors such as health and village savings and loans.

Presenter : Stephen Lutz is Program Consultant for World Renew in Kenya for the past 12 years, and advises three local established church partners throughout Kenya, managing program/project grants and building capacity in the area of food security and community development through conservation agriculture and environmental restoration. Other program areas include MNCH, nutrition and health. His skills and passion are in community program/project design and management, organizational capacity building and networking/collaborating with others for results. Stephan was born and grew up in Honduras where he attended an international school for elementary and high school. He later moved to Germany to continue his studies at the University of Kassel, graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in “Tropical and Sub-Tropical Agriculture” and a Master’s of Science Degree in “Ecological Agricultural/Third World Development."