Moringa to support Kenyan farmers health & wealth

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