Nutrition through food forests & gardens in Kenya

INTRODUCTION

Receive greetings from DNRC family. We hope that your health and in good spirits. We are ever grateful for your generous and continued financial support through global giving for this project. We are happy to share progress of this exciting project of providing nutrition through food forests. It’s worth to report the first established food forests especially in one of our schools (Maiuni) has started producing several fruits such as bananas, guavas, lemon and mangoes. These produce are shared by the teachers and pupils and thus providing nutrition in school.

The DNRC demonstration food forest and the gardens continued to flourish and are producing vegetables for staff food and sale of the extra for income. The main produce are banana, pawpaw, passion fruits, legumes, vegetables and guavas Apart from the nutritional benefit, as food forests mature, they continue to create microclimates, building the soils as they shade off leaves as well as improving water retention thus contributing to one of our major objective of environmental regeneration. As the farmers come to work together and take their trainings together, they build a sense of commitment to improving their community throw tree planting. This builds their sense of community and as they experience the joint successes, they are more energized and continue to succeed in other ventures as nothing succeeds like success.

The other activities during this quarter were propagating and maintaining food forest seedlings, carrying out trainings and on farm follows ups of both farmers and the schools and maintaining DNRC demonstration food forest and the gardens. Below are detailed activities accomplished during the reporting quarter.

Propagation and maintenance of food forest seedlings in the nursery.

During the quarter, a total of 30,400 tree seedlings were propagated in the DNRC main tree nursery for both food forests and woodlots. The following fruit trees were propagated for the food forest: mangoes, citrus, zyzium, avocado, tree tomato, guavas, paw paw, terminalia indica and custard apple. Other tree species propagated included: Terminalia brownii, acacias, sennas gravelllia, neem, luceana, Moringa, terminalia brownii and moringa. All these trees will be planted in the incoming October-December rains. Other key activities in the nursery during the quarter included fetching water, potting and maintenance of the seedlings in the nursery.

Trainings and follow ups

During this reporting quarter, the outreach personnel was mainly engaged with training the farmers and the schools on food forest management. They mainly trained Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and general management of the food forests such as pruning and weeding. Both farmers and the schools continued to prepare the expansion of their food forests by digging more holes. Also during this period, 4 schools were visited and helped on their food forest expansions.

 DNRC food forest

During this reporting quarter, we continued to maintain both DNRC food forest and the gardens. We were able to harvest the following produce from the DNRC food forest: passion 173 pieces of passion fruits 48.5 kgs of bananas, 5 pieces of guavas, 2 pieces of pawpaw and I kg of beans. We are slowly getting diverse production from the food forest and finding that every season there is something to be harvested compared to monoculture were you harvest only once per year and only one type of crop. We are proving that food forests are more productive and diverse thus producing more food nutrients compared to monoculture

DNRC gardens and green houses

During the quarter, we continued to maintain and replant DNRC kitchen Gardens and the greenhouses. The gardens and the greenhouses are supplying food for the staff and extra for sale to the community for income generation.

Challenges

This quarter coincided with our dry season so water was a big problem as the nearby river dried and we have to scoop the sand to fetch water for nursery. This is a big challenge for our project and a permanent solution is needed.

Focus for the next quarter

• To continue preparing for the expansion of the food forests by Digging more holes.
• To continue maintaining the seedlings in the nursery awaiting planting during October- December rains

Introduction

Warm greetings from DNRC family. Once again we are happy to share with you our progress report of our food forest and gardens project. We sincerely appreciated your continued financial support which has enabled us to go this far. Receive our much appreciation once again.

During this quarter, we continued to work on trainings and follow ups to individual farms where all the 600 farmers were visited and trained on their food forests. We also worked with the six schools we work with on their food forests. We also continued Propagating more fruits trees for food forests and working on the DNRC food forest demo. During the quarter we also did tree gapping both to DNRC food forest demonstration farm and individual farmer’s farms. With the approach of the food forest, interests is growing amongst the schools around and during this quarter we had one more school joining us and being trained and helped establish their school food forest.

The approach of food forest is proving to be the alternative way of holistic nutrition provision for our families. The diversity of plants in seven layers in the food forests ensure that all the year round, there is some produce to harvest unlike mono cropping. As the trees, fruits and crops are planted together, they give each other support in different ways such as Fixing nitrogen, providing shade, covering the ground thus keeping evaporation low, moisture retention and improved soil fertility as leaves shade and decompose . This natural and beneficial relationships keeps the system highly productive and ever green.

The following are detailed activities which took place during the quarter:

Training and outreach

During the quarter, all the six schools were visited for training and follow ups of the food forests progress. The newly recruited school, (iviani secondary school) was introduced to food forest establishment and how it relates to the school nutrition for the students. This is important because the students who are future generation will grow up knowing how to meet their nutritional requirement while taking care of the environment.

Propagation of fruits and agroforest trees.

During the quarter, we were busy propagating over 25 species of both fruit trees and others for fodder, fuel and timber. We also continued to manage the seedlings in the nursery .These seedlings will be planted during the October – December rain season. Other activities in the nursery were potting, sowing and transplanting.

Management of DNRC food forest demo.

The last quarter covered our short rain season. During this time, since rains are short, the major activity was gapping and planting seasonal crops such as beans, pigeon peas e.t.c. Management of the food forest was done which included chop and drop. During the quarter, we also harvested the following yields: 24 passion fruits, 50kgs of bananas and 300 gms of cow peas.

DNRC greenhouse and farm.

During the quarter, the major activities in in our farms and greenhouses was mainly planting and tending tomatoes and kales. The main farm was also planted with beans, maize, millet, sorghum and pigeon peas.

Focus for the next quarter

• Training and preparation to plant and expand the food forests in October- December rains
• Management of the already propagated seedlings and propagating the remaining part of the target.
• Tending and managing the DNRC demonstration food forest

Introduction

Greetings from DNRC family. Once again we are happy to share our progressive report on food forests and gardens at DNRC site as well as the progress of our 600 individual farmers we are working with. Thank you once more for your continued financial support which has enabled us to continue promoting food forests as well as gardens with the 600 farmers we are working with. This being the beginning of the year, we planned to increase our tree nursery capacity from 60,000 seedlings to 70,000 with over 25 different tree seedlings mainly indigenous fruit trees for food forests and other trees for fodder, fuel, medicine and timber. The fruit trees in the food forest continue to improve the micro climate thus making it easier for other short term crops to survive like beans, maize cow peas e.tc. The soils are being built as leaves continue to shed from the trees and decompose thus consequently improving the water retention capacity. This quarter, main activities included outreach, tree nursery management and working in DNRC food forest Demo. and Gardens. Below are detailed activities for the quarter.

Training and outreach

The outreach staff was majorly involved in training and follow ups with individual farmers. 10 groups out of the 13 groups have been trained on food forest establishment; teaching all the seven layers of the food forest and their importance. Food forest management which is mainly the chop and drop technique was also trained. The outreach staff was also involved in individual farmer follow ups. 200 farmers have been visited and advice given on the challenges they are facing with their upcoming food forests. Two groups also visited DNRC for food forest training and they were taken through the training in the DNRC food forest Demo. ( See photo attached)

Maintenance of the DNRC food forest Demo. and Gardens

During the quarter, DNRC staff responsible for the food forest management was busy maintaining the food forest mostly through chop and drop of the fast growing nurse trees and mulching the production trees. It was also the harvesting season where we managed to harvested 20 kgs of beans, 30 kgs of bananas,10 kgs of passion ( 105 pcs) fruit and 5kgs of pawspaws. Slowly we are finding the food forest has diverse food production and thus the diverse need of nutrition is taken care of. As the March- April rains set in, we were also busy planting our food forest with beans for nitrogen fixing. The staff were also involved in the DNRC gardens to grow vegetables for staff use and sell for income. See the sack garden food of vegetables growing at DNRC Gardens.

Tree sapling propagation and maintenance.

The major activities for the nursery was potting and propagating slow growing fruits trees, like mangoes, zizygium, balanities, etc  

Focus for the next quarter.

• Gap the lost fruit trees in the food forest.
• Continue managing the DNRC food forest.
• Continue with individual farm follow ups and trainings.

Introduction

Merry Christmas and a happy new year 2017. We are delighted to share with you this progress report on our food forest and gardens project in the New Year eve 2017.We deeply appreciate your continued financial support to implement this project and we say thank you so much. During this quarter, we busy teaching our over 550 farmers on how to establish holes to expand their food forests, maintaining and issuing different tree species to plant during the Oct-Dec rains and also maintaining DNRC food forest and gardens as a demonstration for the farmers and also provide nutritious food for the staff and for sale. Since we work with smallholder farmers in drylands areas, we are finding that food forest is more productive due to positive interaction and beneficial relationships among trees and crops. Due to shade, the cover crops like beans and pigeon peas seem to do better than in the open fields. During the quarter, the following detailed activities were accomplished.

Issuance of tree saplings for food forests.

During this Oct. - Dec. rains, we were able to issue to the farmers over 60,000 seedlings we had propagated in our main tree nursery to plant in food forests and in the woodlots. Some of the tree species we issued included: Mangoes, Avocados, mulberry, pawpaw, passion fruits, balanities, tamarindus indica, moringa, vitex payos, syzygium cumini etc. These fruit trees mature at different times and are high in nutrition so overtime the community will have enough nutrition from these trees. We also plant food crops such as sweet potatoes, beans as cover crop as we try to mimic nature of establishing 7 layers in a natural forest (climax, understorey, shrubs, climbers, tubers, cover crops, herbs).(See attached pictures)

Training and outreach.

During the quarter, we got farmers and school pupils coming to learn from our food forest. Our training and outreach officer was involved in training them in the demonstration food forest for most farmers learn by seeing. (See a photo of visiting school in the food forest)

Managing DNRC food forest demo.

During the last quarter and since it was a rainy season, we gapped the forest with 1 mango tree, 2 vitex payos, 2 lemon trees , 3 paws trees, leucene.and planted lots of cover crops mostly nitrogen fixing like beans, peas sweet potatoes among others. The food forest is flourishing and producing some foods such as passion fruits and mulberry and pawpaw (see the attached pictures).

DNRC greenhouses and farm

During the quarter, we planted our greenhouses with vegetables and tomatoes for staff and sale for income. (See attached pictures).We are also demonstrating vertical planting by use of passion plants so as to utilize small farms of the farmers.(see attached)

Focus for next quarter

• Tree seedlings propagation
• Training and Outreach

Introduction

Greetings from DNRC family. We are glad to once again have a chance to share our progress report with you. Your continued generous support has enabled us to continue working with our now 550 smallholder farmers in food and nutrition security and capacity building through food forests and gardens. As our food forests mature, farmers have started harvesting some products like moringa leaves for domestic consumption and extra for sale. Also as more trees grow both in food forests and in farms, the crops are improving from retained moisture, less erosion and microclimate effect. Our working model of balancing environmental sustainability, social wellbeing and economic viability, has drawn a lot of interest around the community thus more and more farmers want to work with us. We have currently enrolled 100 farmers in our program thus making our accumulative number of active farmers to 550. We hope with more support will eventually cap at 1000 farmers (households).We are also engaging children in 6 schools we are working with who are the future custodians of the sustainability of the community. Thank you again and we look forward to a long term engagement in this noble work. Below is detailed activities achieved during the quarter.

Tree Saplings Propagation and maintenance

As we prepare to plant more food forests and gardens in October- November rains, we have been busy during the quarter propagating and maintaining tree species for the farmers to establish the food forests. We were able to propagate 10,850 tree seedling mixed with fruit trees for food and nutrition. So far we have 61,000 seedlings of different species ready for planting immediately the rain starts. We continue to now maintain and take care of these seedlings as seeing in the picture.

Outreach and follow up trainings

DNRC outreach staff were involved in training farmers on how to maintain their food forests. They also recruited more farmers and trained them on how to establish food forests starting by how to dig and prepare holes for planting. (See attached picture)

Maintenance of the DNRC food forest

During the quarter, we continued to tend the DNRC demonstration food forest which is drawing a lot of attraction from the farmers and visitors who come to learn by seeing. The food forest is flourishing and during the quarter we were able to harvest 3 kgs of passion fruits, 27 kgs of Bananas, 6 kgs of cassava, 1 kg of cow peas. We are still to harvesting more sweet potatoes and cassavas.(see attached picture)

Vegetable Garden

During the quarter, we were able to establish new vegetable garden to supply vegetable to staff and the farmers and as a source of income for sustainability of DNRC. (See attached picture).

School visit

During the quarter, one of our partner schools visited for trainings on sapling propagation and maintenance of tree nursery (see attached picture)

Challenges

Transport is becoming a challenge because, we have more farmers to visit and who are further away, something which is hindering frequent visits.

Recommendation

To purchase a motor bike ($ 1000) for easy and cheap transport.

Focus for Next Quarter

• More trainings and follow ups,
• Issuance of tree seedlings during the coming rain season