Posted on April, 21, 2025 at 12:35 pm
Regenerative agriculture is gaining global recognition as a sustainable approach to food production, focusing on maximising natural resource use while reducing reliance on harmful external inputs.
Amid the growing impacts of climate change, this innovative practice offers a pathway to boosting farm productivity while safeguarding the environment. Although its initial adoption may demand more labour compared to business-as-usual practices, its long-term benefits are unparalleled.
A good example of its success can be told from the quiet, remote villages of Wote, Makueni County where this transformative farming system is gradually taking root, shifting smallholder farmers’ mindset away from conventional practices toward safer, more sustainable crop production.
Through a market-driven Regenerative Agriculture (RA) intervention spearheaded by Enviu, a leading venture-building studio, in collaboration with like-minded partners, the initiative targets both crop and, to some extent, livestock farmers who have long depended on rain-fed agriculture and synthetic inputs for their yields.
Located in Kenya’s semi-arid Lower Eastern region, Makueni County experiences minimal rainfall and widespread soil degradation, challenges that have made it difficult for households to produce enough food, let alone generating surplus for the market.
“Through this programme, farmers here are finding new hope for resilient and productive farming systems,” said Christine Mutisya, the Programme Manager, Enviu Agrifood.
How it started
Since 2019, Enviu’s Agrifood work has focused on eliminating post-harvest losses, demonstrating that a 0% food loss value chain is achievable. Building on this success, the program expanded its scope in 2022 to include regenerative agriculture. “Our focus has always been on creating sustainable food systems by developing business models that reduce post-harvest losses and increase farmer incomes,” said Christine.
Some of the experiences that informed their regenerative work included award-winning ventures such as SokoFresh, which provides solar-powered cold storage and market linkage at farm-gate, and Shambani Pro, a social enterprise which offers a micro-factory model that enables farmers to process their produce at farm gate, adding value and reducing waste.
Christine highlights that through Enviu’s post-harvest loss elimination ventures, they have enabled over 12,000 farmers to extend the shelf-life of their produce, access better markets and improve their livelihoods.
Systematic approach
Starting the RA intervention in Makueni involved a systematic approach that identified and analysed the barriers to farmers transitioning to regenerative agriculture from the root cause. This informed the ideation, and validation of business models with the potential to drive systemic change and create sustainable, long-term impact.
“We chose to start the program in Makueni based on a thorough issue analysis that guided our decision on where to implement. While this method is complex and time-intensive, it ensures lasting change,” said Christine.
Makueni stood out for several key reasons:
About 2.5 years down the line, over 1000 farmers are currently implementing regenerative agricultural practices in the county.
Challenges faced by the farmers
Before the RA programme, farmers in Makueni faced a myriad of challenges that would start with them right from land preparation, production process, harvesting, post-harvest handling and market access, finally affecting their livelihoods.
These are farmers who relied heavily on the rainy season, making their yields unpredictable. They also practiced monocropping, primarily for cash crops and the high cost of inputs made farming expensive and unsustainable.
“We also noticed widespread use of synthetic fertilizers degraded soil quality over time,” underlined Christine.
Generally, farming methods were unsustainable, with practices like monocropping, overgrazing, deforestation, and excessive pesticide use depleting soil health, reducing biodiversity, and lowering resilience to climate change, she added.
Concerning market access, the growers are said to be largely dependent on middlemen who offered low prices, with most selling in local markets, limiting their earnings.
The market for sustainably grown produce was at its infancy stage and the multiple new value chains being planted further posed a challenge to market access.
Impact
This approach has already made a notable impact on farmers’ production and market access.
“By improving farm design to enhance water retention, they are more productive throughout the season, reducing their dependence on weather conditions,” Christine stated.
Also, by practising intercropping of multiple and diversified value chains including herbs and spices, control of pests and diseases has led to increased yields.
“Today, the farmers are shifting their mindset from subsistence farming to commercial production, seeing their farms as businesses,” she adds.
They are also able to harvest crops multiple times during one growing season besides reporting increased biodiversity, supported by soil tests that confirm improved soil health.
Due to better-quality produce, the growers can now access bulk buyers, ensuring a stable and reliable market offering higher prices for their produce.
David Matata is one of the farmers in Wote who has started reaping the benefits of the regenerative system. The father of seven grows fruits like avocados, mangoes, and bananas alongside pumpkins, African indigenous vegetables, legumes, and herbs like thyme.
He says the only difficult stage in embracing a regenerative system is at the beginning because it is labour-intensive, and it may take a little bit longer to begin enjoying the full benefits but once the system is in place less is required to produce more.
“I have dug swales to capture rainwater runoff, which benefits the farm during the dry season. In addition, I use mulching and plant cover crops to minimize water loss through evaporation,” said Matata during a farm tour late last year. Despite the dry season affecting the area, his farm remained lush and green.
He recently harvested up to 100 pumpkins which he sold at between Ksh100 and Ksh300 each which together with sales from other produce has been helping him support the family.
Joseph Nduva, an agriculture extension officer with Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT), Enviu’s implementation partner, says the growers are slowly moving from the notion that profits are separate from ecological and community health.
“These farmers have come to understand that any farming system that neglects environmental and consumer well-being is unsustainable and bound to fail over time.”
Enviu’s ventures target smallholder farmers in arid or semi-arid areas who are part of a local group or organization.
It offers a structured training approach, beginning with a two-day session followed by continuous support to help farmers adopt regenerative practices.
Participants also receive access to essential farming inputs, with training delivered by a dedicated field team.
Why regenerative agriculture
According to an issue carried out by Enviu, intensive farming has degraded soils and ecosystems, making conventional high-input agriculture unsuitable for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. RA, therefore, offers a sustainable alternative by restoring soil health, improving water retention, and enhancing biodiversity.
It reduces reliance on synthetic inputs, increases resilience to climate change, and boosts long-term yields. Additionally, it lowers production costs and creates access to premium markets, ensuring better farmer livelihoods and long-term food security.
Partnerships
Even as the Enviu RA work enters its building phase, Enviu is harnessing the power of partnerships to ensure as many farmers as possible are onboarded and their livelihoods transformed.
“Over the past year, we have been designing, testing and refining our regenerative agriculture business concepts, ensuring they are viable, impactful, and scalable. As we move forward, we are focusing on solidifying our shortlisted models and focused on growing these solutions quickly to drive long-term change,” said Arpana Philip, Sr. Venture Builder at Enviu.,” said Arpana Philip, Sr. Venture Builder at Enviu.
In this, the programme has incorporated a strong network of partners who contribute to different aspects of the process.
These partners include Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) which helps with the implementation of the RA system by providing the needed support to farmers through trainings for knowledge transfer.
Rainforest Alliance helps with providing expertise on sustainable agricultural practices and certification while Organic Agriculture Centre of Kenya (OACK) supports organic farming techniques and soil health improvement initiatives.
Not forgetting farmer groups and input providers which help with scaling impact, peer learning, and ensuring local ownership of regenerative practices while the latter facilitate access to organic and regenerative-friendly farming inputs.
The County Government of Makueni has also been a key partner in the programme by supporting policy alignment and promotes sustainable agriculture at the devolved unit level.
“As we move into the next phase, we are committed to strengthening these collaborations, expanding into new regions, and scaling regenerative agriculture as a commercially viable and impactful solution for smallholder farmers,” affirms Christine.
Funding
Initially, the programme was funded by IKEA Foundation which provided financial support during the early work—including issue analysis, validation, and the building phase.
“As the business are being grown, we seek catalytic partnerships to scale faster,” Arpana Philip added.
Future plans
In 2025, Enviu’s ventures are set to expand into new counties, and strengthen partnerships in addition to enhancing grassroots and government advocacy to drive systemic change in the food system.
Source: Farmers Review