Patti Kristjanson

Linking international agricultural research knowledge with action for sustainable development

We applied an innovation framework to sustainable livestock development research projects in Africa and Asia. The focus of these projects ranged from pastoral systems to poverty and ecosystems services mapping to market access by the poor to fodder and natural resource management to livestock parasite drug resistance. We found that these projects closed gaps between knowledge and action by combining different kinds of knowledge, learning, and boundary spanning approaches; by providing all partners with the same opportunities; and by building the capacity of all partners to innovate and communicate.

Escaping Poverty and Becoming Poor in 20 Kenyan Villages

Three hundred and sixteen households in 20 western Kenyan villages — 19% of all households in these villages — managed successfully to escape from poverty in the past 25 years. However, another 325 households (i.e. 19% of all households of these villages) fell into abiding poverty in the same period. Different causes are associated with households falling into poverty and those overcoming poverty. Separate policies will be required consequently to prevent descent and to promote escape in future. Results from these 20 Kenyan villages are compared with results obtained earlier from a similar inquiry conducted in 35 villages of Rajasthan, India. Some remarkable similarities are found, but also several important differences.

Spatial determinants of poverty in rural Kenya

This article investigates the link between poverty incidence and geographical conditions within rural locations in Kenya. Evidence from poverty maps for Kenya and other developing countries suggests that poverty and income distribution are not homogenous. We use spatial regression techniques to explore the effects of geographic factors on poverty. Slope, soil type, distance/travel time to public resources, elevation, type of land use, and demographic variables prove to be significant in explaining spatial patterns of poverty. However, differential influence of these and other factors at the location level shows that provinces in Kenya are highly heterogeneous; hence different spatial factors are important in explaining welfare levels in different areas within provinces, suggesting that targeted propoor policies are needed. Policy simulations are conducted to explore the impact of various interventions on location-level poverty levels. Investments in roads and improvements in soil fertility are shown to potentially reduce poverty rates, with differential impacts in different regions.

Participatory scenarios as a tool to link science and policy on food security under climate change in East Africa

How effective are multi-stakeholder scenarios-building processes to bring diverse actors together and create a policy-making tool to support sustainable development and promote food security in the developing world under climate change? The effectiveness of a participatory scenario development process highlights the importance of “boundary work” that links actors and organizations involved in generating knowledge on the one hand, and practitioners and policymakers who take actions based on that knowledge on the other. This study reports on the application of criteria for effective boundary work to a multi-stakeholder scenarios process in East Africa that brought together a range of regional agriculture and food systems actors. This analysis has enabled us to evaluate the extent to which these scenarios were seen by the different actors as credible, legitimate and salient, and thus more likely to be useful. The analysis has shown gaps and opportunities for improvement on these criteria, such as the quantification of scenarios, attention to translating and communicating the results through various channels and new approaches to enable a more inclusive and diverse group of participants. We conclude that applying boundary work criteria to multi-stakeholder scenarios processes can do much to increase the likelihood of developing sustainable development and food security policies that are more appropriate.

Understanding gender dimensions of agriculture and climate change in smallholder farming communities

In Uganda, Ghana and Bangladesh, participatory tools were used for a socio-economic and gender analysis of three topics: climate-smart agriculture (CSA), climate analogue approaches, and climate and weather forecasting. Policy and programme-relevant results were obtained. Smallholders are changing agricultural practices due to observations of climatic and environmental change. Women appear to be less adaptive because of financial or resource constraints, because of male domination in receiving information and extension services and because available adaptation strategies tend to create higher labour loads for women. The climate analogue approach (identifying places resembling your future climate so as to identify potential adaptations) is a promising tool for increasing farmer-to-farmer learning, where a high degree of climatic variability means that analogue villages that have successfully adopted new CSA practices exist nearby. Institutional issues related to forecast production limit their credibility and salience, particularly in terms of womens ability to access and understand them. The participatory tools used in this study provided some insights into womens adaptive capacity in the villages studied, but not to the depth necessary to address womens specific vulnerabilities in CSA programmes. Further research is necessary to move the discourse related to gender and climate change beyond the conceptualization of women as a homogenously vulnerable group in CSA programmes.

Locating poor livestock keepers at the global level for research and development targeting

Many research and development agencies are committed to halving the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. Knowledge of where the poor are, and what characterises them, is patchy at best. Here we describe a global livestock and poverty mapping study designed to assist in targeting research and development activities concerning livestock. Estimates of the numbers of poor livestock keepers by production system and region are presented. While these estimates suffer from various problems, improvements in global databases are critical to improve the targeting of interventions that can meet the challenges posed by poverty and to chart progress against international development indicators.

Staying Maasai? Pastoral Livelihoods, Diversification and the Role of Wildlife in Development

This book set out to explore Maasai livelihoods in a time of diversification and change. It presents a picture of Maasai life at the outset of the twenty-first century, and the continuities and transformations involved (Spear and Waller, 1993) . Images of Maasai have been co-opted as international icons over the last decades: they are used locally and internationally to sell every type of product, from holidays and mobile phones to outdoor gear and fashionable shoes. The image of the Maasai warrior is exploited by politicians invoking an international rhetoric of indigeneity and indigenous rights (Galaty, 1993) . The iconic Maasai stereotype encompasses numerous contradictions: a pastoralist tradition officially seen as backward and environmentally destructive, a way of life nationally held to be primitive and undesirable in a modern African state, a custodian of African heritage, an international tourist attraction, and a symbol of physical courage – an attributed characteristic which makes Maasai locally valued as security guards. None of these perceptions capture the solid practicalities or the environmental and economic rationales and realities of Maasai land use and livelihoods, nor the enduring capacity of Maasai society to assimilate new elements and adapt to change (Berntsen, 1976 ; Waller, 1993) . The first and most general purpose of this book is to deliver a much-needed reality check to correct national and international perceptions of contemporary Maasai ways of life. This concluding chapter begins with an overview and cross-site comparative analysis of the findings presented throughout this book on Maasai livelihoods. This overview is then used to explore two issues of overarching contemporary importance, each with wide ramifications in environment and development policy. First, the studies in this book have implications for our understanding of the nature, scale and continuing importance of change and socioeconomic differentiation in East African rangelands, the ecological, economic and political context of pastoralist poverty, and the nature and effects of rural diversification in East Africa. Second, this chapter explores the

Back to baselines: measuring change and sharing data

International research for development is under increasing pressure to demonstrate development outcomes that enhance people’s food security and well-being while preserving the natural resource base. The CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) integrates thematic research at several levels with multiple global, regional and local partners, with the aim of identifying and testing pro-poor adaptation and mitigation practices, technologies and policies for food systems, adaptive capacity and rural livelihoods. We describe a process to design and implement baselines across 2,095 households and 108 villages spread over 15 sites in 12 countries of West and East Africa and South Asia, and to archive, document and analyse the data and make them publicly available. We critically examine the process in relation to design, institutional arrangements, and partnerships. The process was long, complex and expensive. We share important lessons learned regarding how to obtain baseline data for rural populations in agricultural systems, as a basis for prioritising research and monitoring progress towards enhanced food security and increased household welfare, in part through uptake of sustainable changes in agricultural practices.

Do Community Members Share Development Priorities? Results of a Ranking Exercise in East African Rangelands

Abstract This study investigates development priorities of individuals living in 11 communities in the arid and semi-arid rangelands of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. We first asked individuals to describe development efforts that have been implemented in their community. People were then asked to rank the usefulness of these different interventions. Finally, we asked them to rank their priorities for future development activities in their community. Econometric analysis of their responses indicates that variation in rankings of future priorities is primarily driven by variation across communities rather than across households within communities, lending support to community-based approaches to priority setting.

Exploring the impact of farmer-led research supported by civil society organisations

This paper asks: What have been the impacts of farmer- or community-led (informal) processes of research and development in agriculture and natural resource management in terms of food security, ecological sustainability, economic empowerment, gender relations, local capacity to innovate and influence on formal agricultural research and development institutions? An innovative conceptual framework was applied to a diverse set of farmer-led research initiatives in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to explore approaches, outcomes and impacts of informal agricultural research and development (ARD) facilitated by civil society organisations. Findings include the following: locally appropriate technical innovations emerging from these processes are readily taken up by other farmers; the most common channels of dissemination are farmer to farmer through informal networks and spaces created for farmer-researchers and other farmers to meet and exchange, such as innovation fairs; livelihood impacts are broad and substantial; local capacity to innovate is strengthened and institutionalisation through the formal sector has been limited. Lessons are drawn for future partnerships in promoting and supporting farmer-led research involving formal and informal ARD actors working with smallholder communities.