Moringa to support Kenyan farmers health & wealth

INTRODUCTION

Greetings from DNRC Family. We are happy to once again share our Moringa report for the last 3 months. Main activities for the last quarter involved annual planning on Moringa, buying and propagating more moringa seedlings and training and follow ups of individual farmers. As we write this report, our now 600 small scale farmers continue to benefit healthwise by using Moringa leaves in their diets and economically by selling moringa power for income. Also Moringa being one of the tree species we issue to farmers they continue to contribute towards environmental sustainability by improving the microclimate and soil building.

During the quarter, the following detailed activities took place.

Propagating Moringa

In the beginning of the year, we planned to increase moringa seedlings from 4, 0000 to 6,000 to cater for increasing farmers. During the quarter, 1000 moringa seedling were propagated and are being maintained in nursery. They will be issued during this March-May rains to be planted by the farmers.(see attached picture)

Outreach and Training

During the quarter, the outreach staff was majorly involved in training farmers on Moringa management of the old trees and follow ups with the new farmers in preparation of holes to plant Moringa and other trees. (see attached pictures)

Challenge

• No constant ready market for our moringa products apart from one time buyers.

Focus for the next quarter.

• To continue tending and managing moringa trees
• To continue Potting for more moringa propagation.

INTRODUCTION

Happy New Year greetings from DNRC family. We hope you all had a wonderful year 2016 and 2017 is off for a good start. Thank you for your continuous financial support to our moringa project. Your support is enabling us to plant as many as about 60,000 tree seedlings per year among which 3,000 moringa seedlings are being planted .These moringa seedlings are being used for nutrition and also sale of processed leave powder and seeds for income and wealth creation among the now 600 households we are working with. Apart from providing nutrition among the farmers and creating wealth, moringa as a tree is also providing microclimate and improving the surrounding environment. It’s helping to increase crop yields due to partial shading as we work in drylands. Note moringa aloefera is an agroforestry tree so farmers intercrop with other crops without any negative effects to crops. During the quarter, the main activities included: issuing moringa seedlings and other agroforestry tree seedlings to the farmers, field follow ups by our extension workers to guide the farmers on how to plant and tend the already big moringa trees in their farms. Below is the detailed activities during the quarter.

ISSUING MORINGA SEEDLINGS

During the quarter, both the nursery and the outreach personnel were involved in issuance of the 3,000 Moringa seedlings to the 600 farmers and the 6 schools. This took place during Nov- Dec. rains. Farmers are in 13 groups and are scheduled to come at different dates according to the groups and in the first one week of rains so that when they plant don’t have to water but utilize moist soils from rains. At the same time the farmers were also issued with the other tree seedlings of over 25 different tree species.

OUTREACH AND TRAINING

During the quarter, the outreach personnel were involved in training the farmers on how to tend the flowering moringa trees as well as follow up the just planted moringa seedlings. Key emphasis was on the newly recruited members as this was their first time to plant moringa and great care needed to be taken because the seedlings are delicate as the stems are very soft when young and break easily.

CHALLENGE AND RECOMMENDATION

• So far we have over 6,000 mature moringa trees producing a lot of leaves and seeds and with no regular market, farmers are not fully benefiting from them. We are trying to sensitize and promote moringa both locally and internationally in our networks.

FOCUS FOR NEXT QUARTER

• Harvest moringa seeds
• Propagating more moringa seedlings
• Source for more market for moringa products

INTRODUCTION

Greetings from DNRC family. Once again we are delighted to share with you our Moringa to support Kenyan farmer’s health and Wealth progress report. Your continuous financial support on the same give us the energy and confidence to promote Moringa propagation, planting and processing among the 550 smallholder farmers we are working with. We are promoting over 25 different tree species and Moringa is one of the potential tree we are happy with. By consuming the leaves from the trees, the farmers are boosting their nutrition and diet diversity. By growing and tending moringa trees the farmers are protecting the environment and changing the microclimate. By processing moringa leaves and seeds for sale, the farmers are sustainably fighting poverty and creating wealth through income generation.

During the quarter, major activities included propagation of moringa seedling and tending them, training farmers on how to plant and tend Moringa seedlings and moringa power processing. More details about the activities are explained below. Thank you again for the support and we hope you enjoy reading the progress report.

Propagation of moringa seedlings/saplings.

During the quarter, we propagated and continue to take care of over 3000 moringa saplings which will be planted this month when the rains falls. Once the rains come, the 550 farmers will be issued with at least 10 moringa saplings to add into their individual farms and expand the moringa trees already planted in the farm. As the farmers and schools plant more, they grow their natural wealth as moringa market is increasing. (See attached picture)

Outreach and training.

During the quarter, the outreach personnel continued to train farmers on how to take care of the moringa trees already in their farms and how to dig more holes for planting more moringa seedlings. 12 groups were trained during the quarter and also 60 more new farmers were recruited to work with DNRC in the many programs including moringa project. The trainings focused on leave harvesting as well pruning moringa trees for easy harvesting of both leaves and seeds.

Processing and packaging

During the quarter, the farmers brought leaves at DNRC site which were dried, pounded into powder and packaged for sale. Income from the sales go to pay the farmers and a small margin goes towards sustainability of DNRC. Moringa market is growing slowly and we hope one day will be able to get international market for the increasing productivity by the farmers.(See attached picture)

Focus for the next quarter

• Follow up with both farmers and the schools on the preparations of the holes to plant more moringa seedlings.
• Issuance of Moringa seedlings and other tree seedlings during the October-December rains to the farmers and schools to plant in their farms.

Introduction

Moringa to support Kenyan Farmers Health and Wealth project continue to progress well with awareness and usage of Moringa power increasing in the County and within the community we are working with. This project is mainly focused on Moringa tree for its nutritional value for the farmers and extra to sale for income for the now 500 farmers we are working with. Besides the Moringa trees grown by the farmers, we still plant over 25 other different varieties of trees for different uses. The Farmers have started benefiting from other trees products like sustainable harvesting of branches for firewood and charcoal production.

During the quarter, the main activities were harvesting moringa seeds and leaves and bringing them to the DNRC site for sale. Below is more details of the activities and challenges during the quarter. Accompanying are attached pictures of the accomplished activities. We say thank you so much for your continued support and health partnership in this project. God bless.

a. Collecting of moringa seeds and processing moringa leaves into powder

During the quarter, about 40kg of moringa seeds were brought to the office and packed for sale for income. We were also able to process 35kg of moringa power from the leaves brought by the farmers to the site. Once the farmers bring seeds to the site, they are weighed and once sold, the farmers are paid and DNRC makes some margin for sustainability of the project. The same happens to the leaves and the farmers bring them fresh and at the site are dried and using kiln and mortar is made into powder. (See attached pictures of collected moringa seed, leaves being dried and moringa powder.)

b. Propagating moringa and training.

We continued to propagate more moringa seeds in our nursery and training farmers on how to manage the existing moringa trees for optimize the yields. (See attached picture of the tree nursery)

c. Challenges

• Slow local moringa product market. We are trying to sensitize the local market about uses of moringa through word of mouth and display in the office

d. Focus for next quarter.

• To continue to propagate more moringa seedlings and maintenance of the same for October – December rains
• To continue training the farmers on moringa tree maintenance and the importance.
• To continue harvesting moringa seeds and drying leaves for sale and source for both local and international markets.

a. Introduction

Greetings from Drylands Natural Resources Centre (DNRC) family. We are more than grateful for your kind donations through global giving. We are able to continue to regenerate Maiuni community through income generation, environmental protection and social capital build up through planting of Moringa oleifera and other trees by 450 farmers and 6 schools. We focus more on moringa oleifera due to its high nutrition value and saleable product due to its increasing demand locally and internationally. During the quarter, we were able to sale both seeds and powder locally worthy approximately $1000.This amount was distributed to the 450 farmers thus improving local economy. Also the farmers continued to use the Moringa in their diets thus improving their nutrition and diversify their diets. We also continued to propagate more moringa seedlings in our tree nursery, issue ready moringa seedlings to the farmers to plant and also to follow up to the farmers fields to train them on tending the planted moringa seedlings in their farms. The following are more detailed activities which took place during the quarter.

b. Propagating Moringa seedlings

During the quarter, we continued to propagate moringa seedlings to be issued to the farmers during the rainy season. The target for this year is to give each of the 450 farmers at least 10 saplings. (See attached pictures of our tree nursery attendant propagating the saplings)

c. Follow ups of Moringa trees in the farmers’ farms

DNRC training and outreach staff visited 20 individual farmers’ farms as a follow up and on farm training to make sure they are managing the planted moringa seedlings well. During these visits the farmers were also sensitised on the importance of moringa and need to continue caring and increasing the volumes for increasing market. (See attached picture of a DNRC farmer next to her flourishing moringa tree).

d. Processing Moringa powder.

During the quarter, farmers continue to harvest their moringa trees leaves and bringing them to the office for processing. Once they bring the leaves in the office, they are weighed, recorded and dried under shade to retain their nutritive value and then pounded into power and packaged for sale. (See attached picture of some processed powder).

e. Focus for next quarter.

• Continue propagating more moringa seedlings
• Farmers getting more training on moringa.
• Harvesting of moringa seeds from the mature trees for sale.
• Continue processing and packaging moringa powder for sale.