Linking Agriculture with Early Childhood Development:The case of Gandini Community

Photo: Development Horizons

Child malnutrition remains a big problem for children in Kwale County and despite the statistics on the same lacking, areas like Kinango, Samburu and Gandini seems worst hit. Poor nutrition affects both the physical and  intellectual development of the child concerned. By malnutrition in this case, i look at the lack of vital vitamin and mineral nutrients in a diet as opposed to the Protein-energy malnutrition. Read more on the difference here 

Having worked in the area for quite some time, i noted that consumption of greeny vegetables was not considered of paramount importance in the county. The most valued food stuff was maize. With a harvest of maize crop everyone is considered full and satisfied and its no shock to realize that the stew that goes with it is a mixture of table salt and water. Well in terms of quantity, these ECD going children are getting filled but quality wise, their bodies are just being fed regularly with only carbohydrates.

Its because of these reasons that i thought of introducing the aspect of sack gardening to the Gandini community. It happens to be one of the worst poverty hit areas. Notwithstanding is the fact that the area is adjacent to Moi International Airport. While taking off from the airport,its the area you mostly see with mud-walled makuti houses. I chose sack-gardening bearing in mind that the area gets quite dry and water scarcity isn't a once in a lifetime issue. And sack/container gardens happen to be the least consumers of water.With the help of Plan Kwale education program, i set out to train them on how to go about preparing the sacks and the containers to make them suitable for planting vegetables. The first crop selection was kales, Amaranthus and spinachs. To inculcate the gardening culture, we preferred to have the sacks placed near the nursery school.

The initial demonstration plot.
This we chose to be in the homestead of the chairperson of the Gandini village elders. A sample of kales and spinaches were prepared in the nursery bed and later transplanted  to help convert the theory into practice.

The preparations stage

My colleagues, the chairman  and i (Photographer) inspecting the sacks.

The sample demo plots
Notice the yellowed leaves where there was over-watering in this case.

The results
I left the organization i was working with then and i happen to be getting the progress of the project via twitter and phone calls.To my knowledge as of now, the project has spread to neighboring school and hopefully by mid next year, we will have substantive data to give a success story of how agriculture can be interlinked with Nutrition.

cc @emmiewakio your project is doing really well...wish you were still around pic.twitter.com/1ubKHw8Ygf
— Joy Nafungo (@maben12) August 22, 2013

The buck doesn't stop there. The aspect of consuming vegetables for their nutrient value is still minimal in the area. Hence the vegetables farming and consumption gospel has to be preached continuously as  having the vegetables and not consuming brings no difference in the lives the ECD children and their families.

PS:
Have a look at the average nutrient contents in various indigenous vegetables......

Agricultural Society of Kenya Shows.....Same script,different Cast?

Ever since i was a young child, i had a preference for attending Agricultural Society of Kenya  shows which for then meant i had more time to play with the scary swings. As age caught up with me, my preferences shifted to attending shows to learn a thing or two about best agricultural practices. It was my money on the line so it had to bring forth new results. I used to accompany my dad and we would both tour round the country and see what other farmers had to show.

Unfortunately with time, i have realized that there's very little i learn from them these days which in turn has left me to a day pass at the show. This year i attended the Nairobi International Fair at the Jamuhuri grounds and i was disappointed . My feel from touring round the stands was that the fair should have that agricultural prefix removed because there's very little to show on agriculture. More was on businesses and service delivery. Also why would stand like Coffee Board of Kenya buy instant coffee from the supermarkets for display on their stands? Why not bring their own samples of the same for people to even purchase.I mean why not make the day for the queue of people who were constantly asking if they could buy coffee but on a second glance see the product aint worth their money.

Well not all was grim. Here are a few of the things that tickled my fancy. Some of them have contacts just in case you would wish to contact the relevant stakeholders involved.

The banana dome
This is basically as a ripening chamber for bananas. A candle is lit for 24 hours and the effect triggers ethylene gas production which is naturally responsible for ripening in fruits. The bananas are then kept for another 3-4 days to ensure they are fully ripe before sending them to the market. Unfortunately they had no samples for tasting purposes so i cant really comment on the taste bit.

The solar drier
As the name suggests, the drier is used for drying fruits and tubers. This usually commences with sorting to separate the bad from the good. Then followed by cleaning and disinfecting before finally placing them on the drier. The temperatures are usually so hot that the drier which looks like a greenhouse, is only accessible during the early morning hours.

The Chicks Incubator

The Sigona Farms

The Rabbit World
This was the best demonstration stand for me. They had practical details on rabbit rearing that would prove useful to first time rabbit farmers.

The Onion Preservation Technology
Basically the onions are cut and placed the structure shown below. The roof protects them from the direct rays of the sun.

Kihuru Tree and Nursery Landscapes
They had a selection of various grafted trees of any fruit that fairs on well in the Kenyan climate.

Where is the Farming Land????????

A demonstrator during the G20 meeting

Its almost three months since i moved from Mombasa to Nairobi. Well such a shift calls for so many adjustments bearing that Nairobi's life is more fast and crazy compared to the Mombasa one. Not to be spared the hustle and bustle is my search for land, a small piece of it to practice my  farming in the city.

You see one of my former farming friends who i met online and started off a project in Nairobi with has already progressed in her herbs business that definitely i have no room in there.One year is quite a long time time to wait for someone. So she moved along and the enterprise is going on so well and she cant even meet the demand of herbs from her little 1/8 of a garden along Kiambu Road.

In the same case i have been scouting for some piece of land to rent/lease. This being that rental houses in Nairobi are higher up and the only open space left for my farming is the rooftop which for most times is filled with storage tanks and clothes hanging lines. This makes it a no-no farming area lest you get your veges watered by dripping fabric conditioned clothes. The other available options are  first to do corridor gardening which means , placing my crops in sacks, plastic containers, plastic bags, anything that can hold some soil in it but you have to agree with me that i will only be sufficiently philanthropic in providing a good source of vitamins to all and sundry who live within my vicinity. Well they will invade them when am not around the premises.It happened in Kwale and in Nairobi am certain they will carry even the soil filled containers. 

The second option would be to practice indoor farming where i bring in soil-less solutions and grow crops in there. Its one of the thoughts crowding my mind as of now but when you look at the construction of most houses in Nairobi you can see a few cracks here and there and if it means introducing more moisture in the room i might as well wake up to a pile of collapsed stones. Well of course in that case i wont wake up at all. In addition the soil less solution doesn't come cheap.

So this has left me to having disappearing acts on weekends to my dad's farm who specializes on bee keeping, goat, cattle and sheep rearing, and now now starting to pick off on mushrooms, quails and rabbits. He is soo good in his farming and not like Billy's dad :) Despite this being quite a nice and fulfilling venture  i still would love to get a piece of land within the confines of the city because nothing would fill my heart with joy, if not waking up in the morning to take my produce to the market before proceeding to my 8-5 day job.

How of land agents?

Well am not sure you know how pathetic land agents can be. They are worse than the house agents. I remember once my friend went searching for a house, paid the viewing fee only to be taken to an abandoned classroom and the agent telling her she can move in anytime she wishes. They will lease to you a piece of land under ownership somewhere else and leave you with endless tug of wars with the owners. And my being new in the area doesn't make it any better.

Online Land directory?

Since i realized i am not the only person scouting for land, i thought i could come up with a directory sort of for land.If you have or know someone who has some idle piece of land that they would willingly wish to lease, drop me an email at emmiewakio(at)gmail(dot)com and lets take the conversation further.

The Future of Farming expressed via Social Media

Photo Credit: @Farming_bants 

As the whole world got round to celebrating  the World Food Day week, groups gathered everywhere from the global movements,to regional, national and even local levels to celebrate the progress they had achieved in reducing the effects of the never ending problem of hunger and poverty and the subsequent challenges encountered on the same journey. The World Food Day celebration designated by FAO for October 16 targets to increase awareness of the problem of hunger  in the world, promote transfer of technologies in the world  while strengthening both international and national struggle against hunger, poverty and malnutrition. Read on the objectives of the World Food Day HERE.

World Food Day isn't about 1 day, 1 week or even 1 month, as events take place thru the year. Here's what's going on: http://t.co/KsAJFhFKWr
— World Food Day (@FAOWFD) October 31, 2013

In line with the 2013 theme on Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition, European Twitter chat groups led by @agrichatUK brought together farmers from all over the world in a closely coordinated twitter chat to discuss and share their experiences as pertains their producing food for the global population. The event attracted participants from USA, UK, Netherland, Australia, Kenya, Canada and EU culminating to a total of 3664 tweets,890,282reach from 632 contributors(Source:AgrichatUK) This was held under the guidance of six questions that follow thus:

• Q1a : Please introduce yourself by saying who you are,where you are from and what food you produce and share any farm pictures! #AgriChatWorld
• Q1b : Tell us about Agriculture in your country.What is your country famous for and what are you most proud of?  #AgriChatWorld
• Q2 : What is the biggest challenge and/or opportunity facing you as a farmer in your country? #AgriChatWorld
• Q3 : As a farmer or consumer, do you feel the effects of globalisation? What are the local or global aspects of farming? #AgriChatWorld
• Q4 : How do you think farming and our food system will change in the future? #AgriChatWorld
• Q5 : Do you think farmers around the world can work together? If so, how and why? #AgriChatWorld
• Q6 : What would be your number 1 wish for the future of food and farming in the world?

Two questions grabbed my attention (question 2 and 6) as they provided insight on whats happening in the field of farming globally and presented an uniform view around the same.Some of the challenges farmers face turned to be similar and at the same, some challenges presented an opportunity in themselves.As reported during the chat,these challenges included:

*Tuberculosis
*Lack of local slaughter facilities. Can't get sheep processed in time
*One of our biggest challenges in many parts of the USA is water issues (too much or too little)
*High land prices and slipper farming (claiming subsidy but not actively farming)
*Biggest challenge for NZ is market access and dispelling the myth of the footprint
* Large problem is having all sectors constantly placed in competition with each other.Need to begin to work together more
*Biggest challenge in my mind is educating the public about where their food comes from, it's scary how many have no idea
*Biggest challenge is competition for land
*Problems? Changing, extreme weather and constantly evolving rules probably top of the list.
*Maintaining a diverse, sustainable agricultural base in face of mono-culture commodity farming has to be common challenge
* Biggest challenge is to feed the world using sustainable production methods
(Find a continuation of the challenge/opportunity tweets  HERE)

The other question looked at the future of farming where participants expressed their wish for agriculture.These included;

*To preserve the earth we have and still feed the mouths that need to be fed.
*That everyone would have enough nutritious food to eat while preserving a sustainable world
*More small farms = more farmers = system for food resilience
*Top quality food at a fair price for consumer, producer and farmer
*I wish we could all be #Agvocates and tell our story to all!
*That people would appreciate the real value of food. If we do that everybody including the environment will benefit.
*My one wish would be reduced food waste - so much work goes into its production - more respect for food and farming
*Healthy farms, healthy environment, healthy farmers
*That I leave my soil for the next generation capable of sustainable production
*That we could manage as farmers to feed the already 842 million people going hungry globally
*I wish the weather could learn to behave itself & do as its told.
*That we pull off the miracle of feeding everyone over the next 40 years. I really hope we make it.
*That farmers got the respect they deserve & bad farmers disappear
* Profitably produce highly nutritious food at a level that is globally abundant and affordable
*That I leave my soil for the next generation capable of sustainable production
*Sorry I've got 3: educated buyers, sustainable farming systems, closer farming community
*My #1 wish is for consumers to learn everything about where how their #steak and other food gets to their plates
* That everyone is educated on the power of ag & the necessity to support our farmers in sustaining our world
( Find the whole set of the wishes from farmers HERE )

Farming is the big thing almost happening. What is your one wish for the same?What challenges do you face as a farmer? And its my hope that as we set on the path of producing food for millions of people, Chief Seattle words will constantly echo in our minds ;  that we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors but rather we borrow it from our children.