An Assessment of Integration of MSMEs and CSA into Livestock Red Meat Value Chain: A Case Study of Kajiado County, Kenya

Abstract

The livestock sector is a major contributor to food security, livelihoods, and is most affected by climate change, but is also a major contributor of GHGs. While climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has been adopted to mitigate the effects of climate change it has focused more on smallholder food crop producers with little attention to livestock production, and or entire food chains. MSMEs play a pivotal role in enhancing the ability of producers to engage with value chains, integrate women and marginalized groups, innovate, and are key drivers of community resilience, social adaptation, poverty reduction, and protection of livelihoods due to MSMEs’ greater adaptability and flexibility. Linking CSA to MSMEs within the livestock red meat value chains will strengthen the chains, improve incomes, reduce climate risks and increase resilience for pastoralists in ASALs. This study reveals that the red meat value chains in ASALs are still underdeveloped and fragmented, have little application of modern technologies and practices, unsustainable, and largely nomadic. Further, there is low integration of MSMEs and CSA due to actors’ low awareness of the concept of CSA, limited capacity building on CSA, incentives, and policy instruments to integrate MSMEs thus leaving the value chains weak, inefficient, vulnerable to climate risks, and unsustainable. Adaption of sustainable practices can only come after the integration of actors, therefore there is a need to invest in context-based integration approaches, such as awareness and knowledge, affordable relevant modern technologies and practices, relevant policy instruments, and incentives to realize the CSA triple wins, and develop climate-resilient red meat value chains.