An Array Of Hope For Agriculture In Makueni County

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.

Some of the passion fruits in Nathan's farm

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.

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.

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.