October 10, 2024
Project targets most vulnerable Kenyan farmers for improved varieties, restores hope
A project aimed at reaching vulnerable smallholder farmers in Kenya — widows, single mothers, youth, and those living with HIV/AIDS — is improving lives, reducing hunger and empowering some of the most marginalized people in the world.
The project is led by Simon Omondi, assistant director of the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), and supported through the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement (ILCI). ILCI provides funding, training and other support to national research centers in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, to combat global hunger and strengthen capacity among local scientists. Omondi proposed the project in hopes of helping vulnerable communities access the newest seed varieties and management practices — agricultural technologies that can improve yields and boost incomes.
“In rural areas of Kenya, the only source of livelihood is farming. You either farm or you perish,” Omondi said. “From my experience working in rural areas for the past 30 years, I have found that marginalized farmers have been forgotten by development partners, researchers as well as extension agents, because many organizations want to invest where they are likely to showcase immediate improvements for accountability. Although farmers living with special conditions are most vulnerable, they are always excluded. Which means they won’t receive improved varieties — they may not even be aware of new varieties — and then the cycle of their marginalization just continues and grows stronger.”
A bumper harvest of sorghum from a women-led household in Kenya. Photo by Simon Omondi
To break this cycle, Omondi intentionally sought out members of marginalized groups, bringing together 230 of them. Through a roundtable, multi-stakeholder platform, the groups discussed what they needed most to improve their farms and livelihoods. All groups prioritized food and nutrition security in households, incomes, and their voices being heard in community activities. However, unexpectedly, they also identified combating social isolation and discrimination. In many rural areas, for widows, traditional practices limit land ownership by women, so when a husband dies, “there’s a pressure from the relatives to grab the land from the widows,” Omondi explained. Among single mothers, many of whom bore their first child as a teenager and hence without a tangible source of livelihood, their lives reflected hopelessness and exploitation by men. One participant even admitting to considering “poisoning her children and committing suicide,” according to Omondi.
“One of the things this project tried to address was to unmute the unheard voices,” he said.
To achieve that goal, researchers provided participants with improved varieties of three staple crops:
- A high-iron, zinc-rich red bean, called Nyota, which matures within 70 days, is high-yielding and drought-tolerant.
- An iron-biofortified finger millet, a crop commonly used in Kenya for porridge, especially to feed the elderly, pregnant women and growing children.
- And an improved sorghum variety, which is used to cook Ugali, a thick porridge/cake that is a staple in many East African countries.
In just 18 months since the project launched, Omondi has already seen improvements in the lives of project participants. Not only have yields and harvests increased, but neighbors have come to ask advice on why participants’ fields are thriving, or to seek jobs like weeding fields, thus increasing social ties and fostering strong networks. Widow farmers, single mothers, farmers living with HIV now live decent livelihoods. Most families now eat three meals per day. Through income from farming, some have acquired assets such as buying household items, expanding area under crops, buying livestock such as goats, using solar lighting, and starting small businesses. Unlike previously, they are now able to buy school uniform and pay school fees for their children.
As part of the project, researchers established kitchen gardens and trained local residents in household nutrition.
“Some of these farmers have gone from being beggars to being employers,” Omondi said. “We are very excited that this project has been able to restore hope in groups that previously had very little.”
Omondi hopes that the lessons of his project will be applied broadly going forward, as national research centers, non-profit donor agencies and others seek to combat hunger. By intentionally targeting the most marginalized farmers first, in a “bottom-up” strategy, all members of the community will benefit, he said.
“These marginalized people and vulnerable groups rarely ever have access to improved varieties unless there is an affirmative action that targets them,” Omondi said. “The extra effort to reach these people is worth it. When I see through this small project hope and happiness being restored in families, livelihoods being transformed, this is what drives me.”
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