Farmers Put Poverty Firmly in the Past

from All Africa


The Nation (Nairobi)
NEWS

By Jeff Otieno
Nairobi

Hundreds of kilometres away from the hustle and bustle of the city, Mzee Hamisi Kalome tends his three-week old maize crop as his children play hide and seek nearby.

It has taken him a lot of man-hours and technical advice to transform his parcel of land, which was initially covered with thicket, into agriculturally productive terrain.

Though Kilibole location, in Kinango District, from where Mzee Kalome hails, receives more rainfall than the neighbouring areas, farming has been a problem due to poverty.

"Since most of us are poor, it is difficult for us to buy even the simplest farm inputs needed to till the land," he says in Kiswahili.

However, Mzee Kalome has the Coastal Rural Support Programme (CRSP) one of the many projects under the Aga Khan Foundation, to thank because he can now put his piece of land to good use.

It is a typical case of teaching the farmer how to improve his livelihood rather than rely on handouts.

The foundation, which falls under the social development arm of the broader Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) has benefited thousands of farmers in various districts in Coast Province.

AKDN was formed by the spiritual leader of the Ismailia community, His Highness the Aga Khan, to help promote socio-economic development in poor regions.

The foundation, through its agricultural extension officers has taught farmers how to eke out a living in the harsh climate of Kinango by offering them advice and helping them acquire affordable farm inputs.

Mzee Kalome is the chairman of the Kilibole Village Development Organisation (KVDO) - formed with the help of the foundation - that seeks to promote modern farming methods in Kinango.

"We have benefited a lot since we formed the organisation. We can now see the fruits of our sweat, unlike before," he adds in the company of other members.

To Mzee Kalome, the turnaround is a dream come true. He has even ventured into bee-keeping, following a tripartite agreement between the Coastal Rural Support Programme, manufacturing company Honey Care and local farmers.

His bee-keeping project in Mbararani, one of the sacred forests in the area, supplements the income from crops.

"I harvest between eight and 10 kilogrammes of honey, depending on the dryness or wetness of a season," he adds.

The honey is harvested twice during the long rains and once in the dry season.

Under the tripartite agreement, Honey Care buys all the honey produced by members of KVDO, removing the burden of searching for markets from the farmer.

According to Mr Joseph Thoya, an agriculture extension officer with the CRSP, the project has been a boon to farmers because of the ready market.

"Beekeeping was almost non-existent in the area but we have seen more farmers engaging in it since the inception of the project," says Mr Thoya, who has worked with Mr Kalome and his group for many years.

A few kilometres away from Mzee Kalome's home in Ujani Village, residents have solved the persistent water problem that bedevilled the area for many years.

Before the establishment of a small dam on one of the many rivers that traverse the semi-arid land, residents used to walk more than 20km to fetch water, incidents of human and livestock diseases were alarmingly high, negatively impacting on the livelihoods of the residents.

"The dam has been a blessing to many of us because we used to spend most of our time in search of water for domestic and livestock use" says Mr Shumba Kichanja one of the residents in the area.

To inculcate a sense of ownership, Mr Kichanja explains that residents donated the land on which the dam was built, while CRSP donated equipment.

Harsh terrain

The dam has made it possible for this nomadic community inhabiting the harsh terrain to engage in small scale agricultural activities.

"Our aim is to empower people by helping them find home-grown solutions to their day to day problems," explains Mr Thoya.

For that reason, villagers are required to maintain the water equipment whenever it breaks down, instead of waiting for outsiders to do it for them.

Currently, the chambers where water cleansing is done through sedimentation have broken down and residents are already collecting funds to build new ones.

"Our objective is to let the locals own projects and that is why we leave the maintenance work to them," adds Mr Thoya.

The water from the dam is used for livestock farming and irrigating small farms that dot the area.

Life is better than before, courtesy of the mini-dam, explains Mr Kichanja.

Even the growth of their children has improved, he says.

"With water availability and increased earnings, we are able to buy nutritious foods for our children, unlike before," he adds.

It is not only farming that AKDN is involved in.

A few kilometres from Kichanja's home, people are busy lining up at the entrance of a health centre to receive treatment.

Getting quality health care in the area is not easy and the construction of the Mtaa dispensary was a god-send. Dispensaries in Kinango are few and far between.

The nearest hospital is more than 20km away and that is the reason why the dispensary is so dear to the residents.

Despite its small size, the dispensary handles between 70 to 100 patients each day. It was constructed with the help of the Aga Khan Health Services, one of the many agencies under the AKDN.

What makes the dispensary unique is that it is managed by a board comprising local residents who, with the help of Aga Khan Health Services officials, gather statistics on common diseases in the area.

The information is critical and is used when stocking the hospital's pharmacy and informing the nurse in charge on what complaints to expect from patients.

"We try to involve the locals as much as possible in the management of their health needs and this method has more impact," says Mr Felix Agoi, a community health officer with the Aga Khan Health Services.

However, due to lack of manpower in the health sector, the hospital has only one nurse, making it difficult to cope with the number of patients during seasons when diseases such as malaria, typhoid and pneumonia break out.

According to the board members, unlike before, essential drugs for treatment of common diseases are readily available and arrive a few days after an order is placed, ensuring continuity in treatment.

Health surveys

Mr Agoi says the information gathered on diseases is also shared with the Government and is used in large scale demographic health surveys conducted countrywide.

But not all is rosy for the residents who have seen their lives changed through the philanthropic arm of the AKDN.

When the one nurse at Mtaa dispensary, Mr Stephen Ndovo, is on leave, operations at the hospital grind to a halt and residents are forced to look for alternatives treatment.

"The job is quite demanding as you have to treat each and every patient visiting the facility and, being alone, coupled with the lack of diagnostic equipment, makes it even more difficult," says Mr Ndovo.

But despite the equipment problems, residents are making good of the little resources available and are satisfied with the changes the Government has brought in the health sector.

Mr Kichanja, just like other farmers in Kenya, complains of the poor prices of agricultural produce.

"We want the Narc government to go a step further find ways of ensuring that farmers get good prices for their agricultural produce and also ensure we have enough medical officers in the area," he adds.

Mr Kichanja says the Aga Khan Foundation has done a lot for them and it is time the Government supplemented the organisation's efforts.

Elephant attacks

Being a semi-arid area, Ujani and neighbouring villages have to live with wildlife menace, mainly the elephants looking for water and pasture.

"We used to engage in banana farming but the jumbos could not let us continue with that," says Mr Kichanja.

Villagers in Ujani have found a temporary solution to the problem and now plant sukumawiki (kales) instead of bananas.

"Elephants do not destroy sukumawiki and to keep them off, we plant pepper around the farms because they don't like the smell," he says.

As the world celebrates 50 years of His Highness The Aga Khan as the head of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, Mr Kalome and Mr Kichanja will surely be part of the global family thanking the spiritual leader for his philanthropic efforts that have transformed the lives of millions of people.