Nutrition through food forests & gardens in Kenya

INTRODUCTION

Warm greetings from Drylands Natural Resources Centre family. We trust that you and yours are safe and well during this Covid-19 pandemic. We don’t have Covid-19 case in our community yet but within the country the cases continue to rise. Due to this pandemic, we can only meet and train our farmers individually in their farms unlike earlier group trainings. We stopped our regular short courses on permaculture/agro ecology and also volunteers/visitors visits program which supported DNRC financially and her sustainability. This has slowed down our activities substantially though we continue to help our farmers cope with this pandemic through upscale kitchen gardens and food forests for increased food and nutrition security. This has come in handy in that most of the families we serve their family members have been laid off and with some market days banned, social gathering banned and curfew, livelihoods and food security have been seriously affected. Thanks you for your kind support of this project.

During this quarter, we continued to propagate vegetable seedlings to plant at DNRC gardens as well as supply to the farmers to plant in their organic kitchen gardens. Some of the fruit trees propagated and in our food forest range from fodder paw paws, bananas, guavas, passion fruits, tamarind, citrus food among others. The goal is to have both DNRC and the farmers we serve have enough vegetables and fruits from their food forest to increase their nutrition and food security which is key to coping with the pandemic. Major activities done during the reporting quarter included: replanting the food forest, weeding and managing the food forest, harvesting the food crops from the food forest as well as harvesting of fruits. Establishing vegetable nurseries, transplanting the sampling to kitchen gardens as well as managing the kitchen gardens. Also issuing the veg. and tree seedlings to the farmers to plant in their individual farms was carried out during the quarter.

Below are detailed activities during the reporting quarter:

DNRC FOOD FOREST

During the reporting quarter, we harvested 18.80 kgs of beans, 22.4 kgs of bananas, 26.2 kgs of sweet potatoes, 44 pcs of passion fruits, 21pcs guavas and 30kgs of pawpaw which were used to feed DNRC staff and visitors. Other activities involved in weeding, gapping and maintaining the food forest.

KITCHEN GARDENS

During the reporting quarter, DNRC staff were involved in establishing vegetable nurseries, transplanting the veg. saplings into DNRC kitchen gardens, weeding, spraying organic concoctions and top dressing of the crops. .They were also involved in vegetable harvesting of vegetables as well as selling the extra for income. During the reporting quarter, DNRC intensified establishment of organic kitchen gardens by individual farmers as a quick way of coping with Corona pandemic. DNRC outreach personnel individually trained farmers on how to prepare sunken beds (dryland technique) and issued them with vegetable saplings to plant in the sunken beds. Some farmers are already harvesting some vegetables.

CHALLENGES

• Covid-19 has posed a big challenge to our group trainings and have resulted to individual farmer trainings something which has slowed our activities.
• Water still remain our main challenge as we don’t have permanent source and rely on nearby seasonal rivers.

FOCUS FOR NEXT QUARTER

• Manage DNRC food forest as well as continue harvesting fruits and sweet potatoes
• Manage and expand DNRC kitchen gardens
• Continue with individual farmers trainings and follows ups on the household gardens

INTRODUCTION

We hope this report finds all of you well and in God spirits. We are happy for this another opportunity to share with you the progress of our food forest and gardens project which you graciously support. In the last three months, the project has been flourishing due to the good rains in my community. Water loving fruits in the food forests such as bananas, fruit trees etc. grew fast and majority of them producing fruits. Food forests in schools we work with are also doing great. DNRC gardens planted with diverse vegetables also continue to flourish and are providing enough veg. for DNRC staff, visitors and interns. DNRC is also extending more Kitchen gardens to more farmers farms so that to ensure food and nutrition security in our community which is a major issue in our country. During this reporting period, the following activities took place: Produce harvest in the food forest and kitchen gardens, tending and weeding the food forest and kitchen gardens, establishment of vegetable nurseries, re-planting and maintaining both the food forest and kitchen gardens and trainings and follow ups of the same.

DNRC FOOD FOREST

During this reporting quarter, we were busy tending the food forest and maintaining it through chop and drop to open up for more lights for the production trees. We also applied manure and mulched smaller production trees. We earthed the sweet potatoes which are doing very well due to good rains experienced in the community. We also replanted the food forest and kitchen gardens and established vegetable nurseries. During the reporting period, we were able to harvest the following: passion fruits, sweet potatoes, and beans.

FARMERS’ KITCHEN GARDENS

During this reporting period, we were able to establish vegetable nursery to propagate vegetables saplings to be issued to the farmers to plant in their individual kitchen gardens. The farmers were also trained on kitchen gardens techniques such as Zai-pits and sunken beds.

CHALLENGES

• Excessive rain during this reporting period caused some water logging in the vegetable nurseries.

Plan for the next quarter

• Replant, tend and maintain both the kitchen gardens and food forest
• Train and follow up with farmers on both food forests and kitchen gardens