Managing Agricultural Risks
While handicapping growth, unmanaged risks are also a significant factor contributing to chronic poverty in Kenya. Shocks to agricultural production and markets adversely impact household wellbeing in a variety of ways: by limiting food availability, weakening food access, and negatively affecting future livelihoods through income disruption and depletion of productive assets.
Chronically vulnerable groups with high exposure to risks experience a disproportionately large impact from adverse events and typically lack coping mechanisms available to other groups. Understanding these and other risk dynamics is key to developing appropriate risk management responses that can help reduce production volatility, safeguard livelihoods, and put the sector and the broader economy on a firmer footing for growth. Effective strategies can also make a meaningful contribution to poverty reduction efforts.