‘Good things don’t come easy. You have to work hard ‘, says Francis Iregi Kafui, as he proudly surveys the one and a half acre plot that he farms to support his family and himself at Kiambogo in Self Help’s Gilgil project area in Kenya.
The 56 year old father of six is one of 10 Self Help extension farmers in Kiambogo, and a mentor to 10 other local ‘follower’ farmers whom he is supporting and showing how to adopt the farming methods and practices that he has learned since Self Help began working in the locality.
He has diversified his farming activities extensively and how grows onions, beans, Irish potato, kale and other vegetables on his plot, alongside sweet potato, pepper and cabbage from seed provided by the project.
Since receiving initial training and support he has adopted a system of crop rotation, while his method of growing sweet potatoes on raised beds, and kale and other vegetables in compost filled fertility trenches, he has seen yields increase significantly.
‘In previous years I used to harvest around 40kg of beans, but this year I expect to get around 180kg’, he says. ‘My onions, which I am now growing in rows for the first time will yield around 3,000KS (€33) this year’.
Francis is building a rain-harvesting pond on his lands to enable him to grow tomatoes and onions for the first time during the dry season, and is a multiplying sweet potatoes for distribution to other local farmers.
He has planted more than 50 agro-forestry trees to develop a homestead wood lot to meet his family’s future fuel needs, and is also producing the anti-malaria artemacia crop, which he sells to a Kenyan company.
He meets his ‘follower’ farmers regularly to give them advice and training, and visits them at their homes when they are planting. ‘I believe that this system works – I was provided with the training, and I am now in a position to share my knowledge with others’, he says. |
Self Help Africa in Kenya |
Self Help Africa began working in Kenya in the late 1990's - initially in partnership with the Franciscan Brothers at Baraka Agricultural College, and in more recent years as a seperate, independent agency.
The organisation continues to work closely with Baraka College on a Beekeeping Extension Programme and other activities, while it has also established it's own area based development programmes in the Rift Valley Province. |
