That is the harsh message we have to give to the agricultural sector in Kenya. Kenya produces 1,391 kg of cereal per hectare of agricultural land, ranking 141^stout of the 177 countries measured. To compare, the top 10 countries produce at least 7,000 kg cereal per hectare^[2]. A whopping fivefold difference.

While the agricultural sector employs 40% of the total population, it fails to feed the country. Kenya needs to import food in order not to die of hunger; a grand total of 100 billion Kenyan shillings have been imported in the first half of this year^[3].  If Kenya wants to stay competitive, it needs to innovate. 

Modern Agriculture is the redeemer for Kenya

Modern agriculture consists of mechanization, digitalization and new growing practices. However, before we cross over to modern agriculture, we need to set some things straight: agriculture is not the easiest in this country due to its arid regions, and because of its colonial past, Kenyan farmers have focused on the European cash crop market- which is not tailored to the current market conditions. Fortunately, its past does not matter, Kenya does not need to keep itself in this position. No, an innovative industry and bright minds can transform Kenya intothe best ranking countries due to its fertile grounds and natural capital it has in stock. 

Mechanization can make hard work light and increase the time spent on things other than ploughing the land or cultivating crops at the end of the season. Irrigation, for example, is a practice that is still not employed everywhere, even though it increases productivity substantially. Moreover, irrigation reduces the risk of crop failure. The capture of rainwater for the dry season should thereforebe implemented. 

Digitization is also a key strategy to increase productivity according to the top producers of agricultural products. For example, a key innovative player incubated by KCIC is Ujuzi Kilimo that develops technology that allows farmers to measure key growing parameters, such as the nitrogen or moisture content of the ground. This information, in turn, allows farmers to precisely apply fertilizer or moisture only where needed, avoiding over-fertilization or giving more nutrients than necessary. Data-driven farming is the future for feeding the growing population of the world, and Kenya can hop on to this trend by importing new tech or developing their own tools to make food more affordable. 

Growing capacities

New growing practices that are being developed by researchers have shown to offer great potential to the whole market and to specific niche sectors. One of them is greenhouses; they offer a protected space for plants to grow while allowing for the direct control of the needed growth conditions. One can adjust the temperature, humidity levels, lighting, water, CO₂levels, nutrient supplements, and pesticide controls. As the future of farming is science-based, greenhouses offer farmers the best options to do so. What Kenya needs is to upgrade the current horticulture sector and educate new researchers to work together with the brightest in the world to raise Kenya’s competitive edge. 

Above is a picture of greenhouses in The Netherlands, a top ranking country and second-largest food exporter in the world with a land mass just 1/15^ththe size of Kenya. ©George Steinmetz.

Not only will new technology and practices make Kenya competitive, but new economic structures will have to form.  Since small shareholders have too little capital to invest in improved practices, either large investors will need to pitch in or smallholderscan all pitch into a community-driven project. The latter option could be even better for them, given that they can all invest in new technology and share their best practices among each other. This also decreases costs ofgettingtheir produce to the market, since they have more power and resources at hand. 

The way forward

There are plenty of problems at hand in the agricultural sector in Kenya. However, by following market conditions, working together and employing the brightest of minds, Kenya can transform itself into one of the top-producing countries in the world.  All stakeholders- from the government to investors and from smallholdersto the supply chain- need to work together and force each other to become competitive again and reduce costs while increasing profits for everyone. We should not need to import food- we can make it our own and even plentiful more to sell on the world market. 

^{“Not to innovate is to die.” A famous sentence coined by Freeman, a leading economist.} 

^[2]https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/cereal_yield/

Everybody who has been in any of the African cities and the associated traffic always has questioned themselves: “why does everyone else need to move to the same place as I do…” The congestion-plagued cities are not a one-of-a-kind case but are certainly among the world’s worst with respect to traffic. This has not only caused a lot of losses in terms of leisure and working time, but also a lot of traffic-related pollution and resources. This pollution causes climate change, but also a health hazard to the city populations.

Rapid urbanization in Africa has caused a flood of people that all need to commute from A to B. Moreover, the fact that Africans have become richer over the years have caused a rising trend towards car ownership and use. The worst of it, all old cars that are banned in Japan or in Europe and exported to Africa, with bad pollution as a result. Finally, the road infrastructure has not kept up with this huge rise in passenger-miles. To confront all of these issues, African cities need to develop better urban planning systems.

Sustainable forms of public transportation

Building more and more roads is a solution that is certainly viable to a certain extent. However, this requires careful planning and prediction of where passengers will come from and would like to travel to. Not only this but also for the future, since infrastructure will last for at least thirty years to come.

An old but not forgotten strategy is opting for a multi-modal transport system. Multi-modal means that various options of moving around are used when travelling from A to B. The Dutch are famous for their bikes and many bike-miles throughout the year. However, the strength of bikes is amplified if it is combined with public transport: Cycling towards a train or bus station, travel a longer distance, and then either walk to work or hire a single-use bike. In this way, up to four modes of transport are used, each efficient in its own area.

For cycling to work on the continent, safety should be inherently designed into the cities. Raised curbs, protected areas and car-free zones are options. In this video, it becomes clear how bikes can work together in shared spaces. You will see pedestrians, cars, buses, bikes and trams, all in one junction safely operating between each other.

Another picture of Nairobi’s old but quiet streets – Mama Ngina Street – Source: Wazua.com

Creating better city zoning in Africa

The solutions above are focused on addressing the problems of congestion and still force the same A to B distance to work or home. As one might have noticed, during the morning a lot of traffic seems to be going towards the centre of each city, but during the evening, everyone is trying to leave town again, resulting in traffic jams towards the other way. The root cause of this problem is thus the mismatch of living spaces and working spaces.

Zoning is the magic solution that can offer a way out of this traffic hell for many inhabitants. In cities, most space is solely allocated to businesses, hotels or government buildings. You will find very few Africans living in the central district of the cities as the case is for most European cities.

In Kenya for instance, 1987, 2006, and 2012, zoning policies were developed by the Nairobi City Development Ordinances and Zones guidelines. However, these have failed to address the rising population that the city of Nairobi is faced with. Other options are building new industrial and economic centres, closely linked to the cities through highways and railways, allowing rapid movement between the centres, while offering good living spaces in both cities.

Mixed industrial, commercial and living zones can become an autonomous identity. People living inside would not be needed to move out of town and could just shop in the neighbourhood, work at the office next street and live in a green and affordable neighbourhood- without worrying about traffic and air pollution.

The way forward is two-fold. First, African cities need to provide their citizens with better modes of transport, promoting more sustainable alternatives, while allowing other modes to work seamlessly with them. Secondly, urban planners in Africa should think hard about zoning and the way to plan cities. Why do we need only one city centre, when we can have multiple connected hubs where people work, live, and relax? In this way, we can move towards more sustainable cities where it is healthy and fun to live while saving a lot of time and resources currently being spent on traffic.

Environmental management systems can be viewed as management of those activities, products and services of an organization which have an impact on the environment. The ultimate aim of corporate environmental management must be to operate in a way which improves their environmental standards. However, the problem that many organizations face is: what constitutes an environmental standard? How do we measure our impact on the environment without bias?

The intrinsic complexity associated with environmental issues means it is difficult to understand all the feasible actions available to a firm for reducing its impact on the environment. Such complexity makes it hard to accurately assess the real environmental achievements accomplished by a firm.

Confronted by pressure from stakeholders such as the public, environmental groups, and government legislation, many firms have adopted environmental policies for compliance purposes. Such policies can be viewed as a general guideline that companies wish to aspire to. However, they provide little clarity as to how firms actually interact with the environment in their daily operations and are often cherry-picked to look favorably upon a firm’s activities.

Environmental management system standards such as the EU eco-management and audit scheme and the international standard ISO 14001 have been developed to provide organizations with a framework to implement an environmental management system in their activities. An environmental management system (EMS) consists of a number of interrelated elements that function together to achieve the objective of effectively and efficiently managing those activities, products, and services of an organization which have an impact on the environment.

A key element of ISO certification is to promote trust and accountability to stakeholders. This is typically achieved through an external audit, conducted by an independent, third party actor. However, despite the widespread prevalence of auditing systems, notable ‘gaps’ still exist between theory and practice, particularly regarding auditor impartiality. This can be partially attributed to the direct contracting and payment of ISO auditors by the organizations they audit. Rather than serving as a neutral third party figure, these auditors cater to a ‘customer-supplier’ type of relationship, mimicking that of a hired consultant. Such a relationship can contribute to an aura of rationality (rationality? is this the word you wanted to use here?) in which their information is obtained behind closed doors. Thus, while sustainability reports and audits are, in theory, conducted in order to disseminate information to stakeholders, such information may be skewed to favor corporate interests due to auditing biases.

The use of vague terminology within the EMS is another problem that is hard to ignore. There are a tremendous number of actors involved in environmental management schemes. Over 130,000 organizations around the world have been ISO certified. In this light, the scope of differing perceptions and definitions of environmental performance is vast, hence affecting the overall goals and actions of certified facilities. The measures taken to achieve established goals will depend on perceptions of the EMS and its role in a firm. Additionally, while facilities being certified for ISO 14001, for example, are required to establish environmental targets, the nature of the targets fails to be addressed. In essence, the effort put forth by individual firms will vary drastically depending on their interpretation of increased environmental performance. In this respect, even incremental changes are deemed perfectly permissible under ISO guidelines as long as a firm is making ‘headway’ on a goal.

Again, for many organizations, the implementation of an EMS is not primarily aimed at improving its legitimacy and internal practices, but it is often a symbolic action aimed at boosting external legitimacy.

Another drawback to EMS is the loose regulations regarding the integration of EMS, which may lead to decoupling between real organizations and the organizations prescribed by the EMS. Instead of adopting standards that actually lead to environmental sustainability, organizations tend to adapt the EMS to the standards that are already in place. Thus, there is a real danger that the daily activities are somewhat disconnected from the standards set by the EMS. Furthermore, voluntary agreements are a self-managed process. Therefore, its success depends largely on the management commitment present within an organization. Many organizations fail to achieve their sustainability goals due to lack of buy in from the management who might be unaware of the EMS program.

EMS does not establish performance standards and it doesn’t measure environmental performance. What it does is to assist organizations in reaching a target of increased performance. ISO 14001, for instance, is more concerned about processes than actual outcomes. Also, a company could, if it so wished, relocate to less restrictive nations and become an ISO 14001 certified company. It is also worth noting that companies aiming for ISO certification could set their own goals and targets. This could also be exploited by a company by setting easier goals which are achieved and subsequently stating to stakeholders their achievement of ISO 14001 certification, for instance.

Finally, the only element of ISO 14001 which is made public is the environmental policy statement. This lack of transparency is a major disadvantage of ISO 14001, since there is no requirement to make public any information about an organization’s environmental impact.

While acknowledging that self-standing instruments cannot be expected to achieve significant behavioral change, concerted effort should be made at various levels to enhance the effectiveness of Environmental Management Systems such as ISO 140001 and EMAS. The lack of clear guidelines or prescriptions and the overall ambiguity of the systems based on voluntary instruments are characterized by contextual conditions which dominate the process and where outcomes largely depend on which actors are active and most involved. How are the consumers with a lean towards sustainable products to be convinced to buy from certified firms with no real environmental outcome? These are some of the question we should ponder upon as we seek to improve the effectiveness and credibility of environmental management systems.

The rich and enormous natural resources of the Earth have been amongst the most strategic assets for both human well-being and development. Our oceans and its sea life are considered to be one of the key resources that make this planet habitable for humankind. Moreover, in Kenya, for example, are our marine and coastal environment vital for economic, social and cultural contributions as these regions are sources for fisheries, food security and a growing stream of tourism.

Currently, the number of endangered animal and plant species in the world is higher than ever before. Our oceans are facing threats of resources depletion and climate change, and the list of ocean animals that are endangered and on the edge of extinction has never been this long. Further damage to the natural resources and a further decrease in biodiversity due to overexploitation of resources, pollution and climate change, will not only impact businesses and thus Africa’s further economic development, but it will also have far-reaching consequences on the quality of life of the people.

A plastic pollution problem 

In addition to these human-caused problems of overexploitation and climate change, our society has been facing another problem. Over the past 50 years, production and consumption of plastics have continued to rise globally. In addition, the UN states that 8 million tons of plastic waste is dumped into our oceans every year. This pollution has been causing serious consequences for marine life. All over the world, more and more animals are being washed ashore, who died because they got entangled or suffocated in the floating plastic. It is even stated that by 2050, the problem will reach a point when plastic will outweigh fish in our oceans.

Plastic is not only a threat to sea life, a recent study has also revealed that plastic pollution has ended up in the human food chain. In the water, the plastic is broken down in micro-plastic particles, which eventually end up in our diet, be it through fish or tap water. The consequences of this phenomenon are yet unclear, but it might be obvious that this does not contribute to our health and well-being.

That action on tackling this problem is required, is finally getting more attention worldwide. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water, encompasses ten targets focused on conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

A solution to the plastic pollution

Despite that this plastic pollution problem is growing, various developments and actions have been taken to beat this problem and address SDG 14. Whereas the EU just voted last month to ban single-use plastic by 2021, the Kenyan government took drastic measures in August 2017 and imposed a ban on all plastic bags and set high fines to people breaking this law.

Not only the governments are taking action, businesses realize that addressing this plastic problem is creating a win-win situation. Adidas, for example, has been partnering with an organisation that collects plastic from the oceans, resulting in a launch of trainers that are made out of recycled plastic. Next to that already 1 million shoes from recycled plastic have been sold so far, the company now takes the combat against plastic further by committing to only use recycled plastics in all their products by 2024.

Next to larger businesses, also entrepreneurs have acknowledged this problem and few have taken this opportunity to come up with inventive solutions. Six years ago, at the age of 18, the Dutch Boyan Slat came up with the revolutionary idea to build an enormous floating barrier that could collect ocean litter. After a successful crowdfunding action, his company The Ocean Cleanup was founded.

This year, at the beginning of September, six years later, his ideas came into action after years of research and testing. Currently, his Ocean Cleanup System 001 is floating in the Great Pacific Ocean and the largest ocean litter collection process has started. Despite the challenges he and his team are facing since the first results have come in, The Ocean Cleanup team is determined to combat the setbacks and believe that they can achieve their mission.

Another great local example of an entrepreneur that came up with a win-win business model in which trash is turned into treasure, is the KCIC incubated start-up Mega Gas that creates clean cooking fuel out of plastic.

Individual actions matter

Nevertheless, you do not have to be an entrepreneur or a business manager to be able to make your contribution to reducing or tackling this problem. Individual actions, large and small, make the difference. Stop buying that plastic lunchbox every day, chose to carry a water bottle and refuse plastic straws, because together it will make a difference and the change starts with you.

What does 2019 have in store for the global climate?

Weather patterns in countries around the world caught many by surprise. Kenya, for example, usually starts of the year with high temperatures. Surprisingly we have had a bit of light showers, cloudy skies and some chilly breeze. This is just an example of the manifestations of climate change we will be experiencing, all caused by human activities.

The Reality

Not only weather patterns have changed over the decade. Sea levels have been rising, glaciers have been melting and greenhouse emissions are at the highest level in history. 2018 recorded extreme weather occurrences globally, from wildfires in the US, typhoons in South East Asia to drought in the UK and heat waves in Northern hemisphere that caused wildfires in Sweden. Scientists went ahead to call for curbing measures warning that the temperature is steadily rising. The heat wave was the fourth hottest wave ever recorded. Climate change has spared no country. The effects being felt by people across the globe, leading to disrupted national economies, rise in cost of living that is still costing both communities and countries.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released a report signalling that we have 12 years to mitigate climate change. The report tried to weigh what it would look like for us if temperatures rose to 1.5C. Nevertheless, the urgency of why we should maintain the global warming temperatures below 1.5C. seems to have not been grasped yet. As an individual, you will not notice the drastic change of temperature. However, the changes soon will be felt widely. It will further exhibit the mass die-off of coral reefs, rise in sea levels, extinction of some species both on land and in water and in some cases cause an increase certain species.

Steps taken to Mitigate and Adapt to Climate Change.

Nevertheless, not all is doom and gloom, and most of the time the negative news on sustainability overshadows the positive happenings. Since 2015, global leaders have been working on achieving sustainability on 17 different pillars, framed as the Sustainable Development Goals. SDG 13: Climate Action showcases combatting climate change, so that our planet may incur fewer pessimistic impacts on frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, on security of resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, food security just to mention a few.

To further put SDG 13 into action, all countries globally signed the Paris Agreement at COP21 in 2016. At that time, countriesagreed to limit the global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius. When President Trump decided to withdraw from the Paris agreement 2017 it was, and still is, feared that his actions may in the future affect the achievement of SDG 13 due to the USA’s dominance in the world economy, particularly in the manufacturing sector. The industrious country has recorded high Co2 gas emissions this year after three years of decline.

Despite the fact that Trump withdrew from the Agreement and the countries’ emissions increased, his actions caused a reverse effect and did not stop various states from implementing policies to help mitigate and adapt to climate change. U.S leaders came together to form the U.S Climate Alliance after President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement to continue upholding the objectives of the 2015 agreement.

But not only leaders in America have taken action. Last year, China showed the world that they are determined to reach the targets, as they took a huge step by deploying 60,000 military personnel to reforest land on 6.66 million hectares of land. This was in addition to the reforestation of 338,00 square kilometres reforested in the past 5 years.

Costa Rica took a progressive step  by being the first country worldwide that committed to become completely carbon-neutral by 2021, in addition to the fact that the country has been running on renewable energy sources for 99% since 2014. New York plans to divest its pension funds from fossil fuels to pull $5 Billion on investments from oil, gas and coal.

Israel pledged to eliminate the usage of coal, gasoline and diesel by 2030. The Energy Minister citing that within 12 years Israel will be fully relying on natural gas.

The pace of quickening adaptation efforts is increasing at a fast rate. The world has shown that it has the technology needed to combat climate change and the combination of wind and solar energy to pass 1000 gigawatts equivalent to 1600 Coal plants induces the certainty of this conclusion.

In Africa progress has been made on climate change mitigation. Here in Kenya, county governments such as Machakos County have integrated the adaptation measure into the County Government Development Plan creating awareness to the community on the importance of mitigating and adapting to climate change.

It is clear that economical scalable solutions exist to enable countries to take a step toward achieving resilient and low-carbon economies. Therefore, despite the setbacks and the negative news that dominates the headlines,we should not lose focus on the positive things that are happening out there. Let’s make 2019 the year that we focus on that, and keep striving to make things better.