Climate-Smart agriculture and potato production in Kenya: review of the determinants of practice

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) presents the opportunity to meet the world’s increasing food demands in the face of climate variability. It is more responsive to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 13. CSA practices have the potential to alleviate low potato yields among farmers. Investigation of the determinants of practice of CSA would therefore go a long way in informing the efforts to adapt potato production to the effects of climate change. This study explored the determinants of practice of CSA documented by theoretical authorities and empirical studies. The study systematically investigated the need for CSA by reviewing the effect of climate change on potato production. Information from institutional websites and data from FAOSTAT were reviewed. Understanding the financial, natural, physical, and social capital required to execute the CSA technological practices is key to its adoption. Additionally, the mode of communicating the CSA practices determines its adoption, therefore, knowledge of such determinants and that of socioeconomic and institutional factors shapes CSA technological development and diffusion strategies. Understanding of these is essential to tailoring the CSA practices to the farmers’ most pressing needs and to the development of the practices that can easily be accessed and adopted by the farmers.