AGGREGATION HUBS

Misiko says the Syngenta Foundation is working on farmer hubs and aggregation centres, which bring farmers together and enable them to access markets for their produce.

“We have prepared about 200 hubs, and each hub brings on board around 150-200 farmers. This comes to a minimum of 30,000 smallholders that we are targeting at the moment in a coherent way,” he says.

Different organisations are doing different things for the farmers.

The smallholder farmers have their capacity to produce enhanced, their produce aggregated and linked to the markets.

Producers dealing in crops as well as livestock are targeted under the programme, whose first phase runs for five years.

Misiko says at the end of the first phase, some 300,000 producers will have been reached.

“If we reach 300,000 producers, it will enable us to have an effect that is self-sustaining through the markets, government systems and private sector,” he says.

Some of the expected outcomes of the Chef programme include helping herders to sustain or improve their livelihoods, more livestock grazing or fodder available, rangelands being protected, more carbon being sequestered and fewer greenhouse gasses emitted, and wildlife habitats being protected, including for endangered species.

Under the programme, it is envisioned that 1,500km of streams and rivers will be under improved management, 100,000 tonnes per year of reduced carbon dioxide will be achieved, and 150,000ha of land will be under improved management.

Misiko hopes the project covers 150,000 hectares, with huge ripple effects.

He says the potential is huge if rivers come from higher areas and the biodiversity is sustained as this will also help to sequester carbon.

Cetrad director Boniface Kiteme praised the new initiative, saying it is very consultative.

“We arrange our research and training activities around five main areas,” Kiteme said.

“The first one is on water and land resources management and governance, rural development and agrarian transformation, centre-periphery ingredients to understand dynamics in rural livelihoods.”

Kiteme said other areas of research include integrated knowledge management systems that help to foster evidence-based decision-making, planning and project implementation.

He said they have a number of activities that are ongoing.

“We emphasise very much on water governance structures at the grassroots level because of the argument that we have serious water scarcity,” Kiteme said.

“The problem can be addressed if the governance structures are effectively functioning.”

He said the role that the Water Resource Users Associations play is crucial in enhancing participatory water

governance activities on the ground.

“It is important that these institutions are supported to be able to function,” he said.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Keitt production manager John Madadi said climate change has hurt farmers.

He said Mount Kenya Forest used to be well protected with a lot of snow, which would melt and provide water. The snow has however been disappearing at an alarming rate.

“Farmers who used to produce five tonnes are now producing three tonnes.”

Madadi said they help farmers practise sustainable farming to help reverse some of the impacts.

He said the active farmers in Timau are 50, covering 300 hectares (741 acres).

“We have trained farmers with the help of stakeholders to understand that as they go about their agribusiness, they need to ensure that the environment is kept safe and clean and secure because at the end of the day, we are part of the environment,” Madadi said.

Madadi said one acre of land can give around six tonnes.

He said water from farms is directed into soak beats to clean water before being released into the environment.

“When we contract the farmers, we agree with them on the price,” he says.

Madadi said during the low season, they will pay as little as Sh160 and Sh250 during the high season per kilo.

He said the market has been rising steadily, adding that countries such as Europe are very keen when it comes to food safety.

“They do frequent testing and once they do so and realise that your product is not safe for human consumption, they will delist you,” Madadi said.

He said they narrowed down to the individual farmers to score well in food safety.

He said even as the contracted farmers plant for overseas markets, they also plant crops for local consumption.

Madadi said farmers are vetted to find out if they know about food safety and quality.

MESPT Partnership and fundraising coordinator Margaret Miano said they are working on agri-enterprises development space for value chain development and financial inclusion.

“Our key focus areas are agri-enterprise development, access to finance and financial inclusion, productivity and food safety and green transformation,” she said.

CO-CREATION

The pilot for Chef, which was part of co-creation, ran in Laikipia for six months.

“We were working in three value chains: one is avocado value chains, Irish potato and export vegetables,” she said.

Miano said they work with partners using a market system approach.

“The engagement with smallholder farmers is driven by the private sector which in our case is the market,” she said.

“In all the value chains that we intervened in this pilot, we identified the market first and then worked backwards to see what are the needs and the gaps.”

Miano said within the avocado value chain, they worked with Keitt Exporters not only to buy avocados but also to offer extension support to farmers.

Keitt was also their partner in exporting vegetables, such as snap peas, the snow peas that they buy from farmers.

“They support also compliance issues and training of smallholder farmers,” Miano said.

The county government was their focal point as they work closely with the community and they know the gaps.

“The county government supported the identification of the value chains for the region. It supported identify producer groups,” she said adding that they work with organised farmers in groups that are registered.

Miano said having farmers organised in groups that could be cooperative or Community-Based Organisations is crucial for outreach and ease of capacity support.

“We got in from a point of seed system, production, all the way to the market,” she said.

Miano cited the avocado value chain, saying it is new within the region.

“We realised that we did not have a lot of farmers engaged in the value chain, and the ones who were there had a small population of avocado trees, and they did have a steady or contractive market,” she said.

“One of the things that we promote as an organisation is contract farming.”

She said contract farming gives farmers the confidence to invest since they have a guarantee of off-take by the buyer.

“The buyer also helps to guide on the qualities and varieties that are required, and we work with them step by step,” she said.

To increase the number of farmers in the avocado value chain, Miano says they started by identifying seed entrepreneurs.

Miano says one seedling could go by up to Sh250.

One such entrepreneur is John Maina, who has been grafting hass avocado in Mutethia, Meru county.

Initially, Maina who moved from Nyeri, said he found maize, beans and potatoes being the cash crop.

He says he is the first farmer to put up an avocado nursery after he was supported with seeds.

“Before I sell my avocado seedlings, Kephis (Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service) has to come and certify that I’m selling the correct seedlings to farmers,” Maina says.

He says that one seedling of hass avocado goes for Sh150.

In Maina’s nursery, there are 850 grafted hass avocados set to be ready for planting in the next two months.

He has also planted some of the hass avocados on one and a quarter of his farm.

To water his seedlings, Maina has in place a water pan that can water his farm for more than three weeks.

Ephantus Mwai is another farmer who has embraced avocado farming.

Mwai, who has been trained, has already planted 72 trees and is still planting more.