Prosperity and Innovation in the past and future of agriculture in Eastern Africa

This research project is from the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity.

The challenge

Smallholder farmers produce the majority of agricultural output in Eastern Africa, yet are often framed as static, inefficient and vulnerable. This view overlooks the creativity, adaptation and innovation embedded in everyday farming practices, and is shaped by outdated development narratives.

Our approach

This project works with smallholder farmers in Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya, to understand how “digital farmers” are already innovating in their practices. It brings together multi-sectoral partners to challenge dominant modernisation narratives by tracing how farming systems evolve over time through adaptation, improvisation and local knowledge.

By historicising and re-examining farming practices, the project highlights long-standing patterns of innovation across generations, rather than treating change as recent or externally driven.

Why this matters

A more grounded understanding of farming in Eastern Africa can inform more effective, locally led approaches to agricultural development and support more prosperous, resilient futures for smallholder livelihoods.

Resources

The Bartlett Review: Expanding the role of African farmers

This article in the Bartlett Review explores how African smallholder farmers are driving innovation and shaping resilient, regenerative food systems, challenging dominant narratives of modernisation and agricultural development.

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