Saturday, April 20, 2013
Prezzo Interview on urban farming for Msafiri
Monday, April 15, 2013
Using Agriculture to combat Human Trafficking
Today as we were tilling around the watermelon shoots that have just come out of the soil, I was making small talk with the casual labourers on my 3 acre farm in Olturoto, Kitengela, Kenya. Our ideas led us to what the Deputy President said about agriculture; that it holds the key to rural growth, that they want to reverse rural-urban migration to urban-rural migration as young people go back to the farms. This got me thinking of the simple math that they are applying; if 80% of Kenyans live in the rural areas where they are farmers and 80% of Kenyans are poor, then simply improving the Farming profession is the key to double-digit growth! It sounds simple but there are great other supporting sectors of the economy that need to also be improved for agriculture to have a bigger impact. Sectors like infrastructure in terms of roads and markets as well as industries for processing the farm produce.
Agriculture can greatly contribute to poverty alleviation and food security. Poverty and unemployment are the biggest factors that make people vulnerable to human trafficking. In one fell swoop, improved agricultural practices and processes would provide employment in the rural and urban farming areas as well as lift the 80% of Kenyans who are farmers out of poverty. It would also change the perception that farming is for old men who have retired, uneducated people and rich ranchers. So as I cintinue to farm my small shamba, I will also conduct a campaign to create awareness on human trafficking and in it provide agriculture as one of the solutions to mitigate the factors of poverty and unemployment that make people vulnerable to human trafficking. This also ties in with my vision to inspire a million new farmers in Africa.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
The Kenya Feed the Future Innovation Engine
On Friday March 22, 2013, I was in Kitengela to see a family friend about borrowing some of his building stones which lay in a pile on his farm adjacent to ours in Olturoto along the Kitengela-Namanga highway. He declined my request but he gave me something more important! A piece of information that I know will change the lives of many farmers like myself. He showed me an Advert in a local daily about an Innovation Engine from @USAIDKenya that they are launching to improve the status, income and impact that Kenyan farmers have on poverty alleviation and food insecurity.
I was excited about the prospect of being part of this Innovation Engine. This is given that earlier in that same month of March, I had done a blog post on how, if I had the resources, I would equip farmers in my neighbourhood with a tractor to help them with their income and food generating activities. This is because I am passionate about inspiring a million new farmers in Africa as a solution to poverty and food insecurity and equiping groups of farmers with tractors is a nice place to start.
So I did a proposal outlining an idea that will equip farmers who are members of The Vision Self-help Group in Olturoto with a tractor. The tractor will be an income-generating asset for the group as well as act as a labour-saving technology for the women farmers who form 75% of the group's 80 members.
I am scheduled to present the idea formally at the group's monthly meeting on 7th April for it to be adopted and thus give me the greenlight to send the proposal to USAID. I look foward to being their Innovation Champion and bringing this tractor home :)
To get your hands on more information about the Innovation Engine, go to www.kfie.net