Moringa to support Kenyan farmers health & wealth

Introduction

Once again receive much greetings from DNRC family. We are happy to share with you our moringa project progress report. In the recent past, Market for Moringa product has been growing as people become aware of the huge health benefits of it. DNRC has been promoting moringa among other over 25 tree species as part of biodiversity conservation. Now the farmers are reaping both health and wealth benefits of Moringa through domestic use and sell of extra for income. We are selling both moringa leave powder and seeds. DNRC continue to promote planting, processing and marketing moringa products working with 600 smallholder farmers and 6 schools with over 1500 students. During the quarter, the main activities achieved where mainly moringa tree propagation and farmers trainings on hole preparation to plant more moringa trees. Below are the detailed activities taken during the quarter.

Propagation of moringa seedlings.

During the quarter, we continued to propagate more moringa seedlings to be issued to the 600 plus farmers and the 6 schools we work with. This quarter we propagated 2500 moringa seedlings making the accumulative propagated seedling to be planted this year to 4500. This seedlings continue to be maintained in the nursery and getting them ready for issuance to the farmers and schools during November-December rains. (See attached pictures).

Outreach and trainings.

During the 3 months period, DNRC outreach personnel was busy visiting and training farmers on their farms and also the schools. They trained mainly hole Preparations and maintenance of the existing moringa trees. Also farmers were able to harvest and bring moringa seeds at DNRC for packaging and sale. Another Key activity during the quarter was recruiting more farmers. During this period, 40 new farmers were recruited to join the 600 farmers working on this project.

Challenges

Water scarcity was our main challenge during the quarter because DNRC doesn’t have permanent water source. The last rains were not enough and thus water shortage during the quarter was a big challenge because the nearby seasonal river dried up and were relying on a 5 km surface dam. We use donkeys to fetch the water so this is a long distance to make many trips.

Focus for the next quarter.

• Finalise hole digging by the farmers for moringa tree expansion
• Issuing the moringa seedlings to the farmers to plant during the November-December rains
• Moringa seed propagation and maintenance

INTRODUCTION

Greetings from DNRC family. Once again we are happy to share with you our progress report on moringa project to o support Kenyan farmer’s health and wealth creation. Your generous and continued financial support has enabled us to smoothly implement this project. We can’t thank you enough for this help. During the last three months, we continued to promote moringa tree planting besides other tree species among the 600 plus smallholder farmers we are working with. As the farmers continue to plant moringa trees, the positive impacts in terms of social, ecological and economical continue to be realized. Farmers are consuming moringa leaves for their nutrition as well as selling extra through DNRC for income. As the farmers also continue to plant more trees and in solidarity, more moringa raw materials for processing like moringa oil is increasing and in the near future the possibility of moringa oil business will be possible.

During this quarter, major activities for the project were: Farmers individual farms Follow ups and advice, group trainings and propagation and maintenance of moringa tree seedlings/saplings in the nursery. Below are more details of these activities.

Propagation of moringa seedlings /saplings:

During the quarter, we were busy sowing the moringa seeds as well as transplanting them into pots. We managed to propagate 2,000 seedlings within the 3 months. As we propagate them, they are kept under shade net where they are tended and watered to attain about 1 foot before October-November rains when they will be planted by the farmers. We target to give each of the 600 farmers at least 10 moringa saplings to plant during the rainy season.

Outreach and trainings

DNRC outreach and extension officer during this time continued to visit individual farmer’s farms for follow ups and advice. She also organized formal group trainings on how to control emerging pests like insects, caterpillars etc which occasionally attack the tender moringa leaves. She also continued to guide in harvesting both leaves and seeds by the farmers for home consumption and for sell for income through DNRC.

Focus for the next quarter

• To continue to Propagate and tend more moringa seedlings to achieve the targeted 6,000 moringa seedlings
• To continue to train and follow ups and especially in hole preparations for November-December rains

Links:

• see our website

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.