Stories
Kenya
23 September 2015
Beatrice’s story
Photo: Farm Africa / Mwangi Kirubi
Beatrice Kimwele is secretary of the Kevithe Women’s Group – a group of 29 female farmers living in eastern Kenya’s Kitui county.
Little training leads to little income
As is common in the area, Beatrice and her family lived a hand-to-mouth existence – reliant on their twice yearly harvests to survive. With no formal agricultural training and unable to afford to buy good-quality seeds her crops had little chance of thriving and generating the income the family so desperately needed. For up to three months at a time they survived on just one meal each day.
However, this once seemingly endless struggle is now a thing of the past for Beatrice and the other members of the Women’s Group. Last year, one of Farm Africa’s field officers started work with the group, teaching them which crops could thrive in Kitui’s dry climate and how best to grow them. We also provided Beatrice with some high-quality seeds so that she could put everything she has learnt into practice on her farm.
Growing drought-tolerant crops has increased Beatrice’s harvest by 100%.
Looking forward to long-lasting change
The results were astonishing. She planted the new seeds alongside her traditional crop of maize. Beatrice reaped a harvest from her new crops and grew 49kg of green grams, 90kg of cowpeas and 50kg of sorghum – enough to provide three meals a day for her family until the next harvest.
Having reaped a healthy harvest, Beatrice then had the confidence to focus solely on growing the new crops. By using some of the money she earned selling her surplus at market she invested in high-quality seeds for drought-tolerant crops to plant during the next rains. She’s hopeful of another good harvest, and many more to follow!