Bungoma County
Mount Elgon highlands became maize breadbasket—80% arable land supports 1.6 million but climate shocks multiply. By 2026: sustainable practices scale or erosion accelerates.
Bungoma exists because Mount Elgon exists. Kenya's second-highest peak, shared with Uganda, creates the rainfall gradient and fertile volcanic soils that made this region one of western Kenya's most productive agricultural zones. The Bukusu people settled here centuries before colonialism, developing mixed farming systems adapted to the highland-lowland transition.
The colonial and post-colonial periods layered cash crops onto subsistence systems: sugarcane in lower elevations joined the traditional maize, beans, and bananas of the highlands. With 1.6 million people and over 80% arable land, Bungoma ranks among Kenya's most densely farmed counties. Agriculture employs the vast majority, though climate variability increasingly threatens rainfed production that has no irrigation backup.
2025 exposed both the county's productivity and vulnerability. The county government disbursed subsidized maize seed and fertilizer to 21,900 vulnerable farmers, with tractors available at subsidized rates of KSh 3,500 per acre. Yet the same year brought climate whiplash—droughts followed by floods—triggering pest outbreaks and fungal diseases including maize lethal necrosis. Conservation agriculture projects demonstrated yield tripling, but adoption remains patchy.
The county exhibits classic agricultural frontier dynamics: productive but precarious, dependent on rainfall patterns that climate change is making less predictable. By 2026, Bungoma's trajectory hinges on whether sustainable agriculture practices scale beyond demonstration projects—or whether climate shocks continue eroding the smallholder farming that defines the county.