Nyandarua Leads the Way: Kenya’s first county to launch a food loss and waste reduction plan

“Today, we stop watching our wealth rot. Today, we start building the Nyandarua our farmers deserve.”

Background & context

On 27 November 2025, Nyandarua County made history in Kenya, becoming the first county in the country—and a pioneer in East Africa—to adopt a comprehensive five year Food Loss and Waste (FLW) Reduction Action Plan. The plan directly targets an estimated KES 7.8 billion lost each year across Nyandarua’s dairy, potato and vegetable value chains – more than the county’s annual development budget. This was after a participatory and inclusive process involving a diverse group of actors to capture the context-specific realities and community needs to inform evidence-based interventions and coordinated actions to tackle FLW while enhancing sustainable resource use, livelihoods and food system resilience.

The plan unites county government, national ministries, researchers, farmers, private sector and development partners around a shared goal: to halve food loss and waste by 2030, in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 12.3.

A paradox of plenty

Kenya produces enough food to feed its population, yet an estimated 9–10 million tonnes are lost every year before reaching consumers. Still, one in four Kenyans remains food insecure. Food loss and waste – driven by inefficient supply chains, poor transport infrastructure, weak postharvest handling, inadequate storage, climate change impacts and inefficient markets – sits at the heart of this paradox.

Nyandarua, one of the country’s key agricultural hubs, produces large quantities of milk, potatoes and vegetables, but loses KES 7.8 billion annually to FLW. Smallholder farmers suffer most, losing between 15% and 40% of their harvests before they reach markets.

Until 2025, no county in Kenya had a coordinated, data-driven approach to tackle FLW at scale. Kenya’s Postharvest Food Loss and Waste Reduction Management Strategy (2024–2028) existed at national level, but lacked county level operationalisation. Nyandarua stepped forward to turn this national ambition into concrete local action.

FOLU Kenya’s Role: Turning strategy into action

The FOLU Kenya Platform played a central role in convening and advocating for the development and launch of Nyandarua’s FLW Action Plan. Key contributions included:

• Technical facilitation: Supporting evidence gathering and stakeholder engagement to define the plan’s priorities.
• Policy advocacy: Championing county level implementation of the National Postharvest FLW Strategy and positioning Nyandarua as a model for national scaleup.
• Convening: Bringing together the Nyandarua County Government, World Resources Institute (WRI), DanChurch Aid, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, academia , the Council of Governors (CoG), farmer organisations and private sector actors around a shared implementation framework.
• Event leadership and communications: Coordinating the 27 November 2025 launch and framing Nyandarua’s step as a national benchmark for food systems transformation.

The Action Plan is organised around five pillars:

1. Awareness and capacity across the value chain.
2. Evidence-based decisions through robust monitoring systems.
3. Value chain efficiency and market access improvements.
4. Circular economy solutions to turn waste into income.
5. Governance and institutional capacity, integrating FLW reduction into county policy and budget cycles instead of isolated projects.

What’s next?

The economic potential is significant. If the plan is fully implemented and even half of current losses are recovered, up to KES 4 billion could be redirected into the local economy – creating jobs especially for women and youth, prosperity, increasing farmers’ incomes and supporting community development. In the potato sector, improved postharvest handling has already shown the potential to reduce losses from 40% to 10%.

The plan also delivers climate co-benefits. Cutting food loss and waste is one of the most cost-effective climate actions, lowering agricultural emissions for resilient food systems and environmental sustainability.

Nyandarua’s approach provides a model that other counties in Kenya can follow. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has affirmed that the county’s plan will guide national policy, with Kiambu, Muranga, Nakuru, Kakamega, Kilifi, Makueni, Homabay and Meru counties already recognised as early candidates for adaptation.

A key learning is that durable FLW reduction depends on embedding targets into governance and budget cycles, not treating them as one-off projects. The governance and institutional pillar of Nyandarua’s plan is widely seen as its most vital innovation.

The Nyandarua FLW Action Plan, developed between 2023 and 2025 and to be implemented from 2026 to 2030, clearly reflects FOLU’s Phase 3 priorities. By uniting county leadership, national institutions, research organisations, academia, civil society, farmer groups and development partners around a shared plan, Nyandarua is turning a national strategy into systemic change on the ground – and guiding the way for counties across Kenya to follow.

Note: We acknowledge the support of the Governments of Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands and Norway towards the development of Nyandarua FLW Reduction Action Plan.