Growth in a waterless place

16 September 2014

Image: Sorghum farmers in Kitui, Kenya.

By Nigel Harris, Farm Africa's Chief Executive

Kitui, eastern Kenya. The drylands. Kitui was the scene of my first ever Farm Africa project visit three and a half years ago, and as such it has a special place in my heart. It was good to be back.

At Farm Africa we’re increasingly looking to ‘cluster’ our programmes - running three or four different projects in the same geography. This also allows us to build effective relationships with local communities, government and private sector companies, and of course makes us much more efficient.

Kitui is a great example of this. We have projects working on sorghum and green grams, seed systems, poultry and mango, the latter two with a local partner. We work closely with the Kitui County Government Office and other government agencies. And we’re partnering with local businesses.

Water, or the lack of it, dominates in Kitui. Dryland crops that can grow with little water are crucial to help local farmers increase their incomes. But you have to have demand for the produce, and sorghum is in great demand from the breweries and other commercial producers. Green grams, sometimes known as mung beans, are hugely popular locally. I order them at a cafe in Kitui – fantastic. The income this can provide can make an enormous difference to daily life for these farming communities.

And women are leading the way. Passionate, self confident women are taking the lead in almost every project we saw. Rose is the CEO of a company that has partnered with Farm Africa to develop an effective value chain between farmers and the commercial market, expertly focused on her end goals. With great energy and irresistible enthusiasm, her strong ambition to succeed shone through our conversation.

All three farmer groups that we visited were led by women, who took turns to stand up and talk about their plans, their hopes and their expectations for this partnership with Farm Africa. They spoke of how they are working together to accumulate group savings, making weekly individual contributions so that loans can be made to group members in times of need and bigger ticket items can be bought communally. They were busy clearing land to set up demonstration farms that would be used to teach other farmers the best methods and techniques for planting, growing, harvesting and marketing these new drought-tolerant cash crops - hard manual work with simple hoes and rakes. They were excited to learn from Farm Africa about where to acquire better quality seeds, how to increase the fertility of the soil, how to prevent crop loss because of pest infestation, how to store their crops without post harvest losses and how to access markets that would pay them a good price for what they had produced.

Green grams are great – hugely recommended if you ever get the chance to eat them. And the local beer was as good as ever. But as always it’s the drive and passion of the communities we work with that leaves the best impression, reinforced with the technical expertise, appropriate advice and wonderful communication skills of the Farm Africa teams on the ground.

Read more about our work supporting smallholder farmers in Kenya.