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| Mr. Timothy Juma showcasing his harvest |
Life in
itself has its ways of equalizing things. You’ll find in every desert, there
will always be an oasis that blooms with lush pastures, beautiful gardens of
fresh plants growing with majestic stature, springs of clear water flow showing
a total contrast to the vast undulating topography of gigantic sandridges
neatly stretching to the horizon.
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| Some of the passion fruits in Nathan's farm |
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| Some of the equipments purchased by USAID-KHCP project. |
Eastern
province is one of the driest places in Kenya. This has made the place not
densely populated as compared to western part of Kenya or even Central Kenya which
serve as the food basket for a nation that agriculture plays a crucial role in
its economy. A lot has been done over the years to promote agriculture in this
region with no long-term solution in sight until a couple of years ago when
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through a
masterpiece project referred to as Kenya Horticultural Competitiveness Project
(KHCP) that targeted sustainable agriculture to boost the food security status
and the overall sustainable development overtime.
This
project targeted various facets of agriculture which entailed value addition,
incorporation of the best agricultural practices that ensure consistency of
quality products and the overall market access for the products. This project
targeted the whole value chain of agriculture to ensure that there is
continuity.
In
Makueni County in a small town known as Emali, we meet a 35year year old Mr.
Timothy Peter Juma who attests that his vegetable farming especially ‘sukuma wiki’ as it is locally referred
would not have reached where it is right not were it not to the concerted
efforts of the local partners that work with USAID-KHCP. “I can now afford a
smile as a farmer. Before I had a challenge of meeting the demand in the market
for sukuma-wiki as it is one of the most consumed vegetable in the region.
USAID-KHCP has taught me the best agricultural practices to embrace inorder to
achieve the desired quality and volume that is tailored to meet the market
expectations”, he said.
Through
working with local partners USAID-KHCP has been able to roll out trainings to
farmers to effectively embrace technologies that ensure quality production of
agricultural commodities. John Wahome who is an agronomist of Syngenta EA ltd
is quick to note that most farmers in the region embraced poor agricultural
practices and thus they had to exhibit poor results. “Syngenta and KHCP has
worked together to establish seedling nurseries that produce high quality crop
varieties that when we train this farmers to plant in our centers of excellence
ensures and they embrace, they ultimately get the desired quality standards and
volumes”, he confidently utters.
Apart
from teaching the good agricultural practices to the farmers, USAID-KHCP has
managed to introduce value addition to the products that Makueni County
produces. Through pumping millions of shillings to boost value addition aspect
of the agricultural value chain, various equipments have been bought that are
used dry the fresh produce, then mill it and finally, package it for sale to
the local market to earn a coin or two to the various development groups in the
county an example is Huruma Women Group in Kibwezi Town.
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| Huruma Women Group chairlady at therir shop |
Despite
the challenges faced by this county in regards to water availability, it is one
of the counties that produces the best passion fruits in Kenya. In Nzaui Sub
County, Kyemundu Location, Kalili Village, we meet Nathan Kivuva Kilili, a
proud passion fruit farmer in the region. He attributes his success to the
condusive environment that KHCP has accorded them to be able to farm passion in
a place that is hostile to practicing agriculture. “Thanks to USAID-KHCP
project, I’ve been able to be one of the recognized passion fruit growers in
the region capable of producing close to around 80 kilos of passion weekly from
his parcel of land which I sell at Kshs 100 per kilo fetching close to Kshs
8,000 weekly. They’ve also provided drip lines which I use to irrigate my
quarter an acre parcel of land. This has saved me a lot of money”, the soft
spoken man attests.
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| Nathan Kivuva a Proud passion fruit farmer |
Those
are some of the isolated cases of the milestone achievements of USAID-KHCP
project. A lot has been done but still a lot needs to be done to ensure
continuity of the already set infrastructure. Through working with development
partners in the region, USAID-KHCP has been the agent of change in the region
and thus as we seek to meet the economic limits that we set, all stakeholders
have to embrace what this project has done to ensure we meet VISION 2030.
