Climate Action Kenya Project #21368

Permaculture Teacher Training in East Africa

by Permaculture Research Institute Kenya

Project Report | Aug 25, 2016
Expansion of Projects through Capacity Building

By Sheena Shah | Project Leader

Rongo Project - Coffee Consultancy

These last few months have been all about how we build community capacity to build strong enterprises and also on how we can at PRI-Kenya improve to support our partners with finding better markets for their produce.

In Rongo, after an exciting visit from international permaculture designer and coffee expert John and Matthew, Kenyan coffee expert from Gibsons coffee, we can now offer coffee roasted at Gibsons to our growing network of customers. The response has been great as quality of the finished product has vastly improved and we are distributing coffee to individuals as far as the Kenyan Coast and hopefully this will be available at the Kenya Organic Markets very soon!

In Laikipia, Naatum Women's group are thriving and starting to enjoy all the lush produce straight from their gardens. This is huge for them as they would normally walk a minimum of five kilometers to get to a food market and often spend days without eating a proper meal. They also now have a fence that helps protect the farm from elephants.

In the Drylands Natural Resource Centre, East of Kenya in Kitui region, farmers have been learning to construct with cob and have been building their homes and cob ovens. They are becoming a fully communal demo site. Recently DNRC hosted a group of Kenyan and American students (from the University of Wisconsin - Steven's Point) as part of a Permaculture Design course hosted by John of the UWSP and PRI-Kenya. After a successful course, DNRC has continued its work on the ground, and are working hard on new efforts to increase their melia and moringa production, including a new partnership with Kuli Kuli Inc.

In Rusinga, the farmers have been enjoying their nurseries and propogating trees and plants which are then given to the farmers by the project coordinator. They are also saving seeds from the farmers and handing them back to the farmers. Currently they are growing the plant Tephrosia, which is a pesticide that helps repel insects including stem borer in maize as awell as aphids.

Julie is the star grower. She feeds her large family and by the sounds of it a lot of the village, she has been harvesting 3 different crops: Moringa, cassava and beans. This plot has only been in for 2.5 yrs and Julie on average only spends 1-2 hrs per day working in there. Doreen is also one of the founding growers.

Doreen has been growing bananas and pumpkins together. Bananas are considered heavy feeders in terms of water and nutrients. Pumpkins provide shade to conserve water also you can eat the pumpkin leaves and the pumpkins. Doreen and Julie meet every two weeks to share ideas with the group and they also save money as a group and lend it out to people for investing in new ideas and inputs.

The farmers are also producing moringa powder and are currently exploring options for mornga oil.

Finally in Kibwezi, our partners have been producing baobab and there's a huge growing market developing for the product. A Californian company Gokaibe are interested in the product and helping in the organic certification. They've also recently started producing honey which they are currently starting to package to send to us for trail. Exciting!

It's been eventful last few months transitioning at PRI as our current director leaves but it has been a rather exciting time too watching all of the projects come alive and have their own unique growth. We have started to market all of their different products across the region and hope to have all of these featured at the growing organic farmers markets very soon!

Naatum's Women's Group, Laikipia

DNRC, Kitui Eastern Kenya - Cob Oven

Communal experience, DNRC

RIOFA Farmers Thriving!

Products from the Projects

Links:

Permaculture Research Institute Kenya

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