Forestry Training & Finance for 800 Farms in Kenya

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.