Nyatike: Some 14,000 residents from the semi-arid region of Nyatike Sub-County will benefit from an international Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) value chain initiative of fruit trees and poultry farming, aimed at improving their livelihood.
According to Kenya News Agency, the Restore Africa International Programme Coordinator in Kenya, Kennedy Oyugi, outlined that the programme’s objective is to restore agricultural land for food sustainability in Kadem and Kachieng Wards in Nyatike Sub-county. The Programme, under the initiative of The Global EverGreening Alliance, is a farmer-led integrated land restoration and livelihoods improvement programme that aims to capture carbon from the atmosphere to combat the effects of climate change.
Oyugi stated that the organization has partnered with the county to restore degraded lands, in an effort to put more land into agricultural use. Nyatike Sub-county is one of the semi-arid regions in the country with vast unproductive lands. The region is, however, blessed with Lake Victoria waters, which could be used to irrigate dry lands within its shores.
The region is also home to mineral resources including gold and copper. The restoration initiative will include encouraging and supporting farmers to exploit other value chains such as planting fruit trees and poultry farming, to increase food production, generate income, and provide a nutritious diet for their families.
Apart from providing fruit seedlings and chicks for poultry farming, the programme will also link farmers to markets to enable them to generate income for sustainability. The Deputy Director of Agriculture, Migori County, Kennedy Ogutu, encouraged farmers to be part of the change to improve their livelihoods and supplement their fishing endeavours.
Ogutu disclosed that the county has set aside about Sh20 million meant to promote fruit tree planting in the county. ‘We want to support our farmers to have decent farming activities and add to what our partners have been doing in improving the livelihoods of our people,’ said Ogutu. He acknowledged that the Sh20 million would be a boost to the 14,000 farmers, to help restore their arable lands into an agricultural venture.
Ogutu also said that the county has already issued 10,000 fruit tree seedlings to be planted in the identified wards. Martin Duro, a primary school teacher from North Kadem, is already benefiting significantly from growing paw paws and mangoes, an initiative that he started in 2022.
He said that the initiative would not only improve the living standards of his neighbours but also become a catalyst for financial independence. ‘These programmes will help me in market linkage to get better prices than what I used to sell before and make me more financially stable in my agricultural venture,’ he said. The farmer, however, called upon the county government’s Department of Agriculture to employ more extension service officers, to help them chart a clear way of doing the land restoration.
Apart from Migori, the Restore Africa Programme has also been implementing restoration activities in Elgeyo Marakwet, Kilifi, Kwale, and Narok Counties, with targets to sequester 11.1 million tonnes of carbon and restore 250,000 hectares of degraded lands. The programme goal is to build resilient and socio-ecological productive systems by 2052 through landscape restoration and livelihood building for 250,000 small-scale farmers and pastoralists in the counties.