Supporting a community in southeast Kenya to become food secure

PROJECT SUMMARY: We are raising funds so that one rural community living in southeast Kenya, in an area experiencing severe food shortages and widespread poverty, can receive training in climate-smart agriculture, enabling them to become food secure and building their resilience to climate change. 

THE NEED: Climate change, including increasingly erratic rainfall and rising global temperatures, is increasingly threatening the livelihoods of rural dryland communities living in Ukambani in southeast Kenya, many of whom are subsistence farmers who rely on rain-fed agriculture. As crop yields decrease, so too does their ability to generate household income; only 14% of farmers surveyed by the Africa Sand Dam Foundation (our partner in Kenya) at baseline were able to produce a surplus amount of food to sell. This is contributing to widespread poverty; 62% of the population in Ukambani live below the poverty line, compared to 36% nationally. Our climate-smart agriculture project, for which we are seeking funding for, supports farmers to learn new farming techniques so that they can produce more food, despite the increasingly harsh climate with which they live in. 

ABOUT THE PROJECT: Money raised through the campaign will enable one community group in Ukambani to take part in the following activities:

- Establish 1 demonstration farm, providing a classroom for farmers to learn new techniques, and to trial new crops communally

- Receive training in improved farming techniques such as mixed cropping, crop rotation and early planting, to enable them to improve agricultural outputs on their farms

- Implement land terracing in order to conserve soil and water (by reducing rainwater runoff and soil erosion), in turn boosting food production

- Establish a tree nursery so that they can plant trees on their farms, helping to conserve soil and water and provide food, as well as timber, shade and medicine

- Establish a seed bank, using drought-resistant seeds suited to the local environment to boost food production and resilience

IMPACT: The impact of this project will be that farmers can increase food production (both in terms of the quantity and variety of food produced), ensuring a source of food and income even during times of hardship. In turn their food security will be enhanced, their resilience to climate change increased, and they will be able to sustain their livelihoods for generations to come. 

BUDGET:

£2,122 Participatory agricultural training: learning new farming methods for 1 community

£1,868 Food production: setting up demo farming plots, and tools and guidance for terracing

£1,890 Seed banks: setting up and managing seed banks

£1,060 Tree nurseries: providing tools and training to set up a tree nursery

£2,360 Fundraising and governance: fundraising, communications and governance

£9,300 TOTAL

“Before we took part in this project things were really bad. We didn’t know how to dig terraces, how to conserve soil, or how to manage our farms. We couldn’t even grow fruit trees because we didn’t have the knowledge or techniques. The yields were so poor and we really had problems in addressing food challenges. But now we have been trained in sustainable agriculture. Already we are growing mangoes, pawpaw, tomatoes and kales. As a group we have been a great help to the community because we can sell our vegetables so that they can enjoy them too.” Julianne Daudix, Chair of the Kavili community group in Ukambani.