Moringa to support Kenyan farmers health & wealth

INTRODUCTION

Drylands Natural Resources Centre (DNRC) continue to work with the now 700 small holder farmers to promote Moringa trees for the purpose of improving both health and wealth of the farmers. Your financial generosity has been of great help to our work and we can only say thank you very much. Moringa is among the over 30 indigenous tree species we have been promoting over the last 10 years and so far we have seen tremendous benefits. Apart from being an agro forest tree and contributing so much to environmental regeneration which is one of our main goals, Moringa tree has been of great benefit to our community both financially and health wise. Through your generous financial support, farmers are been trained on how to plant moringa tree, harvest the leaves, dry them under shade then powder them for moringa leave powder. The powder is used for both for domestic use and sale for income. Farmers are also trained on how to harvest moringa seeds and de-feather them for extraction of oil for the continuing export market to LUSH Cosmetics. Quite a number of farmers who have constantly used moringa powder as part of their diet have confessed positive results in their health and the awareness of the benefits of Moringa is growing so as the market. During the reporting quarter, the following activities took place: Constant sourcing of moringa seeds to meet the international order of 1000 kgs of Moringa seeds, collecting and drying moringa leaves for the powder, doing follow ups with the farmers on planted moringa trees by the farmers.

Below are detailed activities during the reporting quarter.

Moringa seeds collection for the international order

During the reporting quarter, DNRC staff were very busy sourcing moringa seeds to sale to LUSH cosmetics. The activities involved farmers bringing their moringa seeds to DNRC premises, weighing them and processing their payments for their seeds.

Moringa leaves for powder

During this reporting quarter, DNRC was also sourcing moringa leaves from the farmers, sorting them, weighing and drying them under shade then making powder. The powder is then packed and labelled ready for sale.

Focus for the next quarter

• Continue sourcing moringa seeds for a running order.
• Farmers follow ups to make sure they take good care of their moringa trees.
• Propagating and tending moringa seedlings at DNRC tree nursery.
• Marketing both moringa power and seeds.