Forestry Training & Finance for 800 Farms in Kenya

Introduction

Merry Christmas from DNRC family. During this quarter, we continued to work towards our goal of promoting sustainable development of resources of the dryland regions of Kenya in order to bring about improved livelihoods of the marginalized communities and people living there. Note that the trees we have been planting since 2007, they are big enough to influence the microclimate in the community. The farmers say that the place is cooler than before and they think it’s raining more than before. If true or not true, as you walk around the community you feel and see positive changes. As the trees shed leaves and decompose, they continue to build soil fertility and improve water retention leading to more productivity. As the farmers prune the trees as a form of tree management, the first farmer now have enough firewood for domestic use and DNRC use the extra firewood to make green charcoal thus giving income to farmers. Farmers are also harvesting big moringa trees for moringa powder for nutrition and sale for income. During this quarter, we mainly worked on issuing over 60,000 seedlings to our farmers to plant in their individual farms because it was rainy season, field day/ get together function for all the farmers and training and outreach work. Below are more detailed activities.

The tree nursery

In our annual planning for 2016, we targeted to propagate 60,000 diversified seedlings ranging from fruit trees, timber trees, medicinal trees; fodder trees etc. and mainly indigenous species. We by passed our target by 2,000 seedlings and produced a total of 62,000 seedlings. November –December is our rainy season so the famers were issued with these diverse seedlings to plant in their farms for different uses including biodiversity, timber, fruits, fuel, offer and fiber. We also issued our 6 schools to plant together with the children so that the whole community is involved. (See attached pictures during these activities)

Training and outreach program

During the last three months, our training and outreach staff were involved in training, site identification and preparation of holes in preparation for planting during the rainy season. Also we got some schools coming to DNRC demonstration farm for practical learning. (See attached pictures).

Field day/Get together Function

All the 600 small scale farmers working with DNRC came together on the 16^th of December to celebrate the successes of the year 2016, eat together and interact as a way of strengthening social fabric and sense of community. During the function, they cooked, eat together, danced and shared their experiences and planned for the year 2017.We always have two of these functions per year and it’s our way of building the community and social capital.(see attached pictures)

Challenge

• As the number of famers increase, the geographical distance from DNRC site is increasing to about 7 km to the farthest farmer. To carry tree seedlings and firewood, there is need for a vehicle to ease this challenge.

Focus for next quarter

• End of year staff meeting to carry out Annual planning for the year 2017
• More training on tree management and especially on the new farmers
• Tree seedlings propagation

                                                                                      MERYCHRISTMASS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017

Introduction

Receive greetings from DNRC family. We continue to appreciate and thank you for your continued support through GlobalGiving. We continue to promote sustainable development of resources of the dryland regions of Kenya in order to bring about improved livelihoods of the marginalized communities and people living. We are doing this through tree planting for income, environmental protection and social wellbeing’s of the 500 plus farmers (households) we are working with. Thank you again. Wishing you well, all of you in whatever you do. The following activities took place during this quarter in our different departments.

The Tree Nursery.

During the quarter, 10,850 seedlings were propagated; making the accumulated seedlings so far in the nursery to be 61,850.The following are the dominant species currently in the nursery: A.polycantha, A. xanthopolea, A.tortilis, Faudhebia albida, Senna seamea, Markhamia lutea, CrotonTamaridus, Neem, Leacena, Grevellia, Mango, Eucalyptus, Cypress, Guava, Lemon, Moringa, Sazygium, Tree tomato, Passion, Pawpaw, Avocado, Melia, Ornamentals, Balanities.

Besides propagating, major activity during this quarter water watering and maintaining the existing tree seedlings in the nursery. This is dry season so fetching water for the nursery was a major activity and we were making many trips with our donkeys (see the attached picture).These seedlings continue to be maintained in the nursery till Oct. – Dec. rains when the farmers will be issued to plant in their individual farms.

Farmer’s training/ outreach program.

We continued to train the farmers and visiting their farms to see how they are preparing their land and digging holes in preparation of planting trees during the coming Oct-Dec. rains. More effort was put into the new group and the new school who joined our program. They had to be taken through our agroforestry training module and also the vision and mission of the organization so that as we work with them, they are well oriented. The accumulated farmers now working with DNRC is 550 farmers (households).These families are next to each other so as they plant the trees, the impact is huge due to closeness to each other.

Challenges

• Water scarcity and high demand for our expanding nursery especially during the driest months of the year.

Focus for the next quarter

• Maintain the tree nursery and continue propagate seedlings target.
• Farmers’ follow- ups in their individual farms.
• Issuing and planting of the tree seedlings during the rainy season in Oct-Nov.