Seeds, tools and training are reaping rewards for farmers in Kenya

The Kitui and Mwingi districts of Kenya are particularly prone to drought.  During the last three months of 2010, these districts experienced very erratic and poorly distributed rainfall.  Farm Africa is helping farmers to grow crops successfully in these conditions.

In 2010, over 6,600 farmers were trained in dryland farming techniques such as planting, spacing and weeding.  In addition, a total of 55.5 metric tons of assorted drought-tolerant seeds were distributed to these farmers, including sorghum, cowpeas, green grams and millet!

Farm Africa provided farmers with the tools they needed to implement techniques to conserve the nutrients in their soil – including over 200 wheelbarrows and 200 shovels. With Farm Africa’s help, over 4,500 farmers applied manure to their soil in 2010 and others implemented techniques such as terracing and cut off drains to improve soil fertility. 
Over 10,000 tree seedlings and 200kgs of grass were also planted to help farmers to conserve the nutrients in their soil. 

In addition, five dams and four boreholes have been dug with the help of Farm Africa, which has improved farmers’ access to water and allowed drip feed irrigation sites to be established close to these water sources.  It’s working! Eight farmers are already benefiting through the sale of vegetables grown on these drip irrigation sites.

In the next three months, this work will continue – over 300 more farmers will receive dryland farming training to make a total of 7,000.  As well as this, three more boreholes will be drilled.  More updates soon…