Climate Change and the Agriculture Sector

The Kenyan agricultural sector, which accounts for over a fifth of the GDP, is highly sensitive to climate change, facing risks from unpredictable rainfall, droughts, and pests. While the sector is a significant emitter of greenhouse gases—primarily from livestock—the document emphasizes that adaptation to ensure food security and export earnings is the priority. It suggests climate-smart practices such as agroforestry and conservation tillage to build resilience and reduce emissions, while noting that the carbon market currently offers limited financial benefits due to high monitoring costs.

• Agriculture is a cornerstone of the Kenyan economy, contributing more than 50 per cent of foreign exchange earnings and just over a fifth of the GDP, with 65 per cent of the rural population relying on farming.
• Climate change impacts in Kenya are already evident through increased soil erosion, deforestation, loss of soil fertility, and a rise in droughts and floods.
• The National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) identifies several primary risks to Kenyan agriculture, including a decrease in reliable cropping days, unpredictable rainfall patterns that disrupt planning, increased flooding, and the emergence of new pests.
• The agricultural sector was responsible for approximately 30 per cent of Kenya's greenhouse gas emissions in 2010, with the livestock sector generating about 90 per cent of those emissions.
• Kenya prioritizes food security and export earnings over emission reductions; the government will not adopt mitigation measures that threaten the ability to feed the population or reduce export income.
• The Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project, the first in Africa to sell voluntary soil carbon credits, found that increased productivity provided more significant economic benefits to farmers than revenues from the carbon market, as monitoring and measuring carbon is very costly.

APA

Murphy, D., & Harris, M. (2014). Climate Change and the Agriculture Sector. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Climate-Change-and-the-Agriculture-Sector.pdf

Chicago

Murphy, Deborah, and Melissa Harris. Climate Change and the Agriculture Sector. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2014. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Climate-Change-and-the-Agriculture-Sector.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Murphy |first1=Deborah |last2=Harris |first2=Melissa |title=Climate Change and the Agriculture Sector |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=April 2014 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Climate-Change-and-the-Agriculture-Sector.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{murphy2014climate, author = {Murphy, Deborah and Harris, Melissa}, title = {{Climate Change and the Agriculture Sector}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2014}, month = apr, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Climate-Change-and-the-Agriculture-Sector.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }