Barfoots and Cosine UK see Farm Africa's fish-farming success

13 February 2014

This week, four representatives from the UK food producers Barfoots and field marketing agency Cosine UK are in Kisumu, western Kenya, to see first-hand what their support for Farm Africa’s work with smallholder farmers means to local communities.

Since 2011, Barfoots and Cosine UK have been generously donating their time and funds to Food for Good, a Farm Africa fundraising initiative that brings together key players from the food and hospitality sectors in an industry-wide effort to end hunger for good. People from across the Barfoots and Cosine UK families have thrown themselves into some pretty extraordinary, and occasionally hair-raising, activities to raise money, including scaling Mount Kilimanjaro, trekking across the Tanzanian Highlands, completing the Tough Mudder challenge and running the 2013 Virgin London Marathon.

All of these efforts and have more contributed to a total of over £500,000 in the past year alone, and this week, Sophie and Rebecca from Barfoots and Lauren and Emma from Cosine are out in the field to witness just some of the difference this support is making. They’re currently in Kisumu, western Kenya, to meet beneficiaries of Farm Africa’s acquaculture project, which trains farmers in fish farming and helps them manage ponds, harvest and sell their fish and even set up ‘aqua shops’ to support other local fish farmers.

"We have had such a friendly welcome and the country side is lush here in Kisumu. We visited Saul, the owner of one of Farm Africa's aqua shops here. He was a total inspiration and a great example of what hard work can achieve. With the training he provides, fish farmers have been able to increase their incomes from a single harvest of 2,000 shillings to around 40,000 shillings!” Rebecca, Barfoots

So far the visitors have met Saul Odenyo, who runs the thriving Funyula Aqua Shop, and the Bukhoma and Afula fish-farming groups, who use the new methods of fish farming taught by Farm Africa and locals like Saul. The Bukhoma group has set up and manages 15 ponds, and its members are well-skilled in essential techniques such as keeping the water clean and protecting their fish from predators. To understand how far these farmers have come, the visitors also travelled to Lake Victoria to experience first-hand the difficulties of traditional fish farming:

"It’s been amazing to see the traditional method of fishing and to realise how hard people work without landing much fish, and then to see the impact Farm Africa is making through fish ponds. When we met the Afula group we could sense they were going places and had big plans about what they would do with the money they make from the harvest. By investing their money back in the ponds I could see they were moving their lives onto a sustainable footing.” Emma, Cosine UK

Just like the Afula group, Food for Good also has ‘big plans’ for the future. On March 27 2014, Farm Africa will be hosting the first ever Food for Good Ball, a glamorous opportunity to celebrate of the success of the campaign so far, and raise awareness around the work that still needs to be done.

The Food for Good Ball is just the beginning of a year of planned fundraising events. Aiming to emulate the fundraising success of companies such as Barfoots and Cosine UK, many companies new to the campaign are already planning their fundraising activities for 2014, including African challenges and staff events.

Contact the Food for Good team to find out how your company can get involved with the Food for Good Ball and the wider Food for Good campaign to end hunger, for good.