Evidence use for equitable climate-resilient coffee in Kenya – report

Coffee remains an important source of livelihoods and export earnings in Kenya, supporting more than 700,000 small-scale farmers. Yet production has fallen substantially from its late-1980s peak, reflecting a combination of climate pressures, pests and diseases, changing markets and long-running institutional challenges.

Kenya is now pursuing an ambitious programme of coffee-sector reform alongside new opportunities for climate-resilient and green trade. This creates an opportunity to think about coffee production not only in terms of productivity and market access, but also as part of wider efforts to restore soils, increase climate resilience and support healthier agricultural landscapes. The challenge is to ensure that these ambitions for farmers, markets and nature recovery reinforce rather than undermine one another.

Produced through the British Academy-funded Strengthening Evidence-use for Equitable Climate Resilient Coffee Policies (STEEP) project, this report examines how evidence is produced, shared and used across Kenya’s coffee policy ecosystem. Drawing on document analysis, interviews and multi-stakeholder workshops, it explores the relationships between national and county governments, researchers, cooperatives, businesses, civil society and coffee producers—and how evidence can better support policy implementation.

What did we find?

The research highlights three priority areas.

1. Transforming smallholder coffee production. Strengthening Kenya’s coffee sector requires better two-way flows of knowledge between farmers, extension services, researchers and policymakers, alongside ensuring that the benefits of higher quality and more sustainable production reach farmers.
2. Making certification and evidence work for farmers. Certification, traceability and sustainability standards can support market access, but they also carry financial, administrative and labour costs. Evidence systems need to demonstrate credible benefits for farmers while avoiding unnecessary duplication and burdens.
3. Navigating a changing trade landscape. Kenya’s AfCFTA Green Supplement offers opportunities to connect coffee production with climate resilience, regenerative practices and green trade. At the same time, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is making geolocation, traceability and other forms of documentation increasingly important for market access.

Across these areas, the report identifies a broader shift towards an “evidence economy”, in which data and documentation increasingly shape who can participate in markets and on what terms. A key challenge is to build an evidence system that is coordinated, interoperable and farmer-centred – supporting climate resilience and nature-positive production without leaving smallholders carrying the costs of increasingly data-intensive governance.

The report concludes with recommendations for government, coffee companies, civil society, development partners and other actors working towards a more resilient and equitable future for Kenyan coffee.

A briefing note that summarises the longer report is available on this page (opens in new tab).