Moringa to support Kenyan farmers health & wealth

Introduction

Receive our sincerely greetings from DNRC family. We are happy to share with you our progress quarter report on healthy and wealth creation for the Kenyan farmers we work with. As we continue to work to attain our objectives of environmental regeneration, community strengthening and economic development, we are also keen to see that the 600 households we work with are healthy and wealthy from the products of the trees we plant. Since 2007, the trees we have been promoting have grown to maturity and most of them have formed enough canopies and have created microclimates thus creating a good climate for food production. Moringa is one of the agroforest trees we have been promoting over the years. The older Moringa trees have grown to maturity and the farmers continue to harvest the leaves for powder processing and the seeds majorly for sale for industrial oil pressing.  We have trained our farmers on how to dry the leaves under shade so as to retain the nutrients. The project continues to build our social fabric/ capacity as farmers get trained on moringa issues together and later go and implement at personal level in their individual farms. We can only say thank you so much for your continued financial support.

Currently our international client has renewed the order for our farmers to supply once more 1000kgs of Moringa seeds. This is very exciting to all the farmers as they have ready market for their Moringa trees. Farmers continue to use both fresh and powdered moringa leaves for their diet as a nutritional supplement. Most of the farmers are now confessing the positive feedback they are getting in their health from using Moringa powder consistently. One farmer said he feels better with her blood pressure because she uses moringa powder.

During the reporting quarter, major activities included: propagating more moringa seedlings, sourcing moringa seeds for the market, preparing holes to plant more Moringa during the November rains.

Below are detailed activities during the reporting quarter.

Propagating more moringa seedlings

During the quarter, we continued to propagate more moringa seedlings. This quarter we have propagated 4000 seedlings which are being taken care in the nursery by watering and weeding.

Sourcing moringa seeds

During the reporting quarter, our designated staff for moringa continued to source moringa seeds for the 1000 order for the LUSH.

Farmer follow ups and trainings

During the reporting quarter, we continued to train farmers on how to prepare holes to plant more moringa trees during the coming October-December rains. The farmers were also trained on how to manage the moringa trees through coppicing to produce more leaves and seeds.

Challenges

Water for our expanding tree nursery continue to be our biggest challenge.

Plans for the next quarter

• Continue to propagate more and maintain the moringa seedlings in the nursery
• Issuance of moringa sapling and other tree seedlings during the coming rainy season

Kind greetings from Drylands Natural Resources Centre (DNRC) Family. We are pleased once again to share our progress report on Moringa to support Kenyan farmer’s health and wealth with you. Your continued financial support has enabled us to constantly continue working with our 700 smallholder famers in environmental regeneration, community strengthening and financial sustainability. Since 2007, we have been planting trees of diverse species which farmers continue to plant for multipurpose including for food and nutrition, income and biodiversity conservation. Moringa is one of the many trees we grow for the health benefit as well as selling the surplus inform of powder and seeds for income. Farmers continue to use moringa powder in their diet and they have testified positive progress in their health as they use the powder regularly in their meals. The extra moringa powder is packaged at DNRC and sold for income. Moringa seeds are known for industrial oil used to make cosmetics. We are happy to again share that LUSH Cosmetics-UK are currently buying our moringa seeds for oil extraction. This is a big plus for our farmers as now can get income from the seeds unlike before. Once again we say thank you for your kind support.

During the reporting quarter, we were majorly involved in collecting seeds from the farmers for sale, Processing and packaging moringa power and planting more moringa seedlings in our nursery. Below are detailed activities during this quarter.

Sourcing Moringa seeds

During the quarter, we sourced 1000kgs of moringa seeds from the farmers which were sun dried and packaged into bags for sale to LUSH cosmetics who has a local oil pressing company in Nairobi. The work also included mobilizing the farmers to collect and defeathering the seeds.

Drying and preparing moringa powder

During this reporting quarter, we were also busy drying moringa leaves and pounding them using mortar and pestle for local use and sale as moringa powder.

Tree Nursery

During the quarter, DNRC tree nursery staff were busy planting more moringa seedlings to be issued and planted by the farmers during the Oct-Dec. rains.

Focus for next quarter

• Tending and maintaining Moringa seedling and others in the nursery
• Collecting more moringa seeds
• Outreach and training of farmers.