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The Daily Journal |
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KENYA By Katy Salmon KIKUYU - Discipline is strict at Margaret Mwangi's school. Late comers are punished with a Ksh50 fine (or 65 U.S. cents). Every morning the grey-haired mother of six rushes to prepare breakfast for her family so that she can be at school by eight o'clock sharp. Mwangi is a student at the Kikuyu Farmers Field School (FFS), supported by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). She is the sole breadwinner for her family. Her husband has retired. Although her children have finished school, she cannot afford to send them to university and they have no jobs. She struggles to put food on the table every day. The only assets, the family has, are a two-acre plot of land and two cows that don't produce much milk. Feeding the cows is a problem because she does not have space on her small farm to let them graze freely. Land is scarce in densely populated Kikuyu, on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Shortages are getting worse as the population increases. ''We have small plots that have been cul-tivated for a long time. So the soil is not good,'' Mwangi says. Mwangi grows and sells napier grass, which is used to feed cattle. She also produces some vegetables, maize and beans. But she cannot produce enough to feed her family. ''We have to have other ways of gen-erating income to buy more food,'' she says. But it is hard to find paid labour in Kikuyu and when it is available the pay is only Ksh100 (1.30 U.S. Dollars) a day. ''What can you buy with Ksh100?'' she asks. So Mwangi decided that the only way to improve her family income was to find better ways of managing her shamba or farm. ''I came here (to the school) because I want to have those new ideas of growing crops in a small area but in a more productive way,'' she explains. ''And I want to find ways of assisting my cows.'' Mwangi says she has already learnt a lot at the farmers' field school. She is experimenting with different crops, like onions, and learning better ways of caring for and feeding her cows. They also have been introduced to income-generating al-ternatives likebee-keeping. ''Maybe I can try it in the fu-ture, '' she says. ''We've also been taught poultry keeping, but it is not very promising. Diseases can comeup and if the chick-ens all die, it's your loss.'' Families often face hun-ger in between harvests. ''Farming is a seasonal activity. Most farmers are subsisting. So after a pro-duction cycle, you find that the food is finished,'' says Benjamin Mweri, an FFS co-ordinator. ''Income generation is important for off-sea-sons. As they farm, there shouldalso be something else that brings in money,'' says Mweri. On the coast, FFS groups are producing neem soap from neem trees and co-conut oil. One group is exporting their soap to neighbouring Uganda. FFS teaches the farmers to think like innovative business-people. ''We are trying to encourage the farmer to look at farming as a business where they can produce for their consumption and surplus for income-generation,'' says Mweri. FAO started the farmers' field schools (FFS) as part of its drive to eliminate global hunger. At the World Food Summit six years ago, the international community agreed to halve world hunger by 2015 but indications are that the target will not be met. In Kenya, the FFS hope to reach 20,000 farmers in the next two years. About 56 percent of Kenya's population of 30 million live below the poverty line on less than one U.S. dollar a day. A recent WFP assessment mission has shown that while the long seasonal rains have brought some respite to eastern and southern regions, drought continues to devastate the central and northern areas of the country. Young and able-bodied men are being driven as far afield as Ethiopia and Somalia to find pasture for their livestock, leaving behind the women, children and the elderly. Women represent about 51 percent of the population in these areas, and without milk or meat they and their children are particularly vulnerable. The FAO project in Kenya is targeting women as they do 80 percent of the farming. ''When you look at ownership, the title may be in the man's name but the person doing the farm-ing is the woman. The FFS are out to empower the woman to ensure that she takes charge,'' says Mweri. ''In our schools without walls, we use a participatory extension approach. Previously, it was top to bottom. Everything was pushed at the farmers. With this approach, you have to find out what the farmers' problems and needs are. ''We blend their knowledge with modern technologies and together come up with better solutions. Our staff are not teachers but facilitators. We deliver the technological mes-sages. Farmers then have the opportunity to make choices in their methods of production,'' says Mweri. Common problems include soil fertility, land management and how to maximise production on small pieces of land. FAO also introduce the farmers to home economists who encourage women to find new uses for common staple foods. For example, cassava (manioc) can be used in cakes and bis-cuits. They also advise them how to improve their families' nutrition, such as planting fruit trees and learning how to preserve fresh foods. Mweri is hopeful about reducing poverty. ''It is possible to eliminate hunger if there are the right policies on the ground,'' he says. Once production increases, marketing is the next major hur-dle. Farmers complain that they cannot get good prices for their crops. ''There are times when there is excess in the market. The crop you've grown doesn't even refund the money you used on it,'' says Richard Mwangi Mutito, a member of the Kikuyu FFS. Last season, Mutito grew courgettes. He estimates it cost Ksh500 (7.04 U.S. dollars) to produce a 20 litre bucketful. But he could only sell them for Ksh100 (1.40 U.S. dollars) a bucket. ''You've worked so much, you're so tired and you've got noth-ing at the end of the day,'' he says. To overcome this problem, FFS is teaching the farmers to carry out market surveys. They learn to predict when certain fruits and vegetables will become scarce on the market so that they can produce and sell them for a healthy profit.
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