Health or Agricultural Development: Boundary Objects and Organizations in a Soya Project in Western Kenya

Abstract

Improving global health and agricultural development have been identified as two of the most important objectives in fighting global poverty. However, the two approaches come at development from different perspectives and can actually undermine each other in practice. Successful management of the competing demands of health and agriculture through organizations and technologies is crucial to advancing sustainable development. The turn toward local procurement of agricultural products in the administration of global food aid is evidence of attempts to bring these approaches together at the global scale, but has not delivered the promised benefits at the local level. This article presents a case study of a small Kenyan community based organization (CBO), Community Action for Rural Development (CARD), as it has attempted to negotiate between nutrition and agricultural development in global and local networks. Specifically, the case study addresses CARD’s experience with a small scale soya beans project as a part of a World Food Program (WFP) local procurement program and a transition toward developing a local soya bean project.