Building Competitive Green Industries

needed in the policy, legislative, and institutionalspace, as well as in the field through education andawareness-raising activities and local vulnerabilityassessments (Agricultural Sector DevelopmentStrategy-Kenya, 2010). Specific interventionswere outlined in more depth in Kenya’s updatedNational Climate Change Action Plan, which wasreleased in 2013 (National Climate Change ActionPlan 2013-2017-Kenya, 2013). The plan includesinterventions for agriculture, and livestock andpastoralism.In agriculture, the plan aims to promote irrigationand conservation tillage; develop weather-indexedcrop insurance schemes; and provide support forcommunity-based adaptation schemes includingthe provision of drought-resistant seed andagricultural extension services that aim to educatefarmers about climate risks. In terms of livestockand pastoralism, the plan recommends breedingheat-tolerant animals; promoting vaccinationcampaigns; ensuring a safe and adequate watersupply for both animals and people; and providinginsurance schemes.Kenya recognizes the triple wins that climatesmartagriculture can deliver from enhancedcarbon mitigation, improved adaptation benefits,and higher productivity and profits. It is currentlydeveloping policies and approaches to implementCSA on a large scale, and does not have toovercome deeply institutionalized policies andpractices that are not necessarily congruent withCSA, as India does.The government is active in moving its CSAprogram forward with the help of developmentgroups such as CCARS (the Research Program onClimate Change, Agriculture and Food Security),which is supported by CGIAR (the ConsultativeGroup on International Agricultural Research). Thegroup is working to build consensus on the priorityactions related to agriculture that are proposedin the NAPCC so that they can be piloted andultimately scaled up when appropriate (ResearchProgram on Climate Change, Agriculture and FoodSecurity, 2013). One of the biggest opportunitiesfor the government is to improve agriculturalextension services to help accelerate the traditionalrate of learning and knowledge dissemination,and improve the distribution of improved seed andother technological innovations.The government’s plans for agriculture alsooverlap with other national priorities, like waterconservation and improved catchment, andincreased forest cover. Approaching CSA witha multiple-benefits perspective is helping thegovernment align its departments and theiractivities, and is effectively aiming to mainstreamthe kind of landscape-level planning that CSAdemands.The SME Story for CSAThe differences between CSA and other cleantechnology sectors, and the types of activitiesthat are involved in CSA, illustrate why the SMEopportunities in this sector are significantlydifferent from those in other clean technologysectors. The value chain approach—majorequipment, installation and balance of systems,and O&M—is less clearly applicable than in theIndian solar or Kenyan bioenergy case studies.Many CSA activities are rooted in behaviorchange, sustainable use of natural capital, and theintelligent application of knowledge and practiceto natural systems. The activities that drivethese CSA changes include clinical diagnosticsof local threats and opportunities, education andawareness raising, farmer field demonstrations,and ultimately adoption of integrated, sustainabletechniques.Unlike the renewable energy, transport, and waterand sanitation sectors, whose market sizes andcommercial SME opportunities could be moreeasily articulated, CSA is often not a technocentricactivity particularly on smallholder farms indeveloping countries. Many interventions requirelittle or no new equipment. CSA plans also tendto be driven by government or donors, since thecommercial returns of improved practice accrueto the farmer and community at large, rather thanthe trainer or extension agent, so the commercialopportunity space is more limited. Furthermore,individual farmers may be too small to serveprofitably and most smallholder farmers are notready to pay for education about new techniques.However, in developed countries CSA technologiesare emerging that are relevant. These technologiesprovide an indication of some of the opportunitiesthat may emerge over time in developing countries.They include:• Sensor-driven technologies, software, androbotics to drive precision agriculture, forinstance, soil and plant sensors that monitorgrowing conditions and enable inputs to be66 Building Competitive Green Industries: The Climate and Clean Technology Opportunity for Developing Countries