Strengthening the Soil Information System (SIS) in Kenya: A collaborative roadmap

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) of Kenya, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO), ISRIC – World Soil Information, and CABI, hosted a two-day workshop titled "Kenya Soil Information System (KenSIS) Roadmap Development Workshop" at the KALRO Headquarters in Loresho, Nairobi, on 5-6 March 2025.

The workshop aimed to bring together key stakeholders from the government, research institutions, the development sector, and the private sector to refine a short-term solution to support Kenya's fertiliser subsidy scheme while laying the foundation for the design and development of a sustainable Kenya Soil Information System (KenSIS).

Agriculture is key to Kenya's economy, directly contributing 33% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and indirectly adding another 27% through linkages with other sectors. The sector employs more than 40% of the total population and more than 70% of Kenya's rural people (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics). However, agricultural productivity has been declining due to various factors, particularly soil degradation.

"A national SIS is important for Kenya because Kenya is an agriculturally based country. The agrarian economy drives everything in the country, and at the moment, agricultural productivity has been declining, and this is because of various reasons, particularly soil degradation. When we talk about soil degradation, we are talking about soil acidity, soil nutrient depletion, and erosion issues. So, for us to be able to address these problems, we need soil information that is reliable and of high quality," said Dr. Kennedy Were, KALRO’s Chief Research Scientist and Head of Soil Survey.

KenSIS is defined by KALRO as an integrated system or centralised platform designed to collect, store, analyse, manage, and disseminate soil data and information, allowing users to make informed decisions, and provided a visualisation on how KenSIS should look like.

The development of a national SIS goes beyond the mere deployment of digital tools; it requires a collaborative approach involving all relevant stakeholders to ensure strategies align with local needs.

Kenya’s agricultural sector comprises a wide range of players, including public institutions, universities, non-governmental organisations, and private enterprises. "For many years, we have had disjointed efforts in matter soil health management where different organisations have been implementing different activities without consulting each other," explained Dr. Riziki Mwadalu, Research Scientist at the Kenya Forestry Research Institute.

Eng. Laban Kiplagat, Director of Agricultural Land Resources and Management at MoALD, emphasised the importance of KenSIS: "KenSIS is an important tool and how it's going to help us to move forward is that it will help us in what data to collect and where to collect. It will also help us as far as the different types of stakeholders that we may need to engage."