Workshop participants engaging during workshop session

National training workshop on LSC hub held in Kenya

Date: December 20, 2023    Author: Thaïsa van der Woude (ISRIC)

30 participants received hands-on training on how to access Kenya’s LSC hub and how to use the information contained in the hub.

Nairobi, Kenya: The Land, Soil, and Crop Information Services (LSC-IS) to support Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) project organised a national workshop in Kenya on 18-19 December 2023.

The workshop was hosted by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), coordinated by the International Livestock Research Institute, as the leader of work package - four and supported by the staff of ISRIC - World Soil Information, Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation (WCDI), Wageningen Environmental Research, World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) and the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The workshop brought together national users of land soil crop (LSC) data hubs in Kenya’s agricultural knowledge and innovation system (AKIS). They were grouped into farmer representatives, development partners and non-governmental organisations, research and academia, public institutions, and private sector players.

The work is funded by the European Union’s Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA) program with co-funding from the EU and The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a contribution from ISRIC - World Soil Information.

Dr. Michael Okoti from KALRO delivered the opening speech, after which the participants wrote down their expectations, questions, and comments. Thereafter, Dr. John Recha from ILRI presented an overview of the LSC project, and the results of the user needs assessment, which served as the basis for developing the LSC hub prototype. Thaïsa van der Woude from ISRIC presented the process of the development of the LSC hub prototype. The remainder of day 1 of the workshop focused on introducing, training, and familiarising stakeholders with the LSC hub prototype and obtaining feedback to improve it. This was led by Dr.. Kennedy Were from KALRO. The workshop brought together national users of land soil crop (LSC) data hubs in Kenya’s agricultural knowledge and innovation system (AKIS). They were grouped into farmer representatives, development partners and non-governmental organisations, research and academia, public institutions, and private sector players.

Day 2 of the workshop started with a recap session of day 1: Blaise Amony from ASARECA led the discussion on positives and recommendations for the workshop, and a recap of the LSC hub prototype functionalities was facilitated by Dr. Kennedy Were. The goal of day 2 was to show the added value of the LSC hub, presented by Dr. Ermias Betemariam, how the stakeholders can use the LSC hub for their benefit, and what information was still missing in the LSC hub. All of the provided information by the stakeholders helped to improve the functionality and user-friendliness of the LSC hub.

During the workshop, 30 participants received hands-on training on how to access the LSC Hub and how to use the information contained in the Hub.

Objectives of the national workshop were:

• To introduce, familiarize, and train LSC information users involved in working with and benefiting from land, soil, and crop information.
• To collect feedback from LSC information users to improve the functionality and user-friendliness of the LSC Hub.