Kitchen Gardening

75 small-scale tea farmers and their families are enjoying sufficient and nutritious food through increased income from kitchen gardening. COSDEP trains and equip these farmers with skills and knowledge on how to cultivate kitchen gardens – a practice proven to contribute to food security and healthy environment.

Local solution

Training small-scale tea farmers to start composting and kitchen gardening for a more, diverse, safe and healthy food production. For communities this means a sustainable solution for food security, income and the environment.

The small-scale tea farmers in Upper Kiambu have been highly dependent on the prices of tea that are set by the global market. Many suffer from loss of income and undernutrition due to the current low tea prices, unpredictable weather due to climate change and escalating food prices. Moreover, the mono-cropping causes loss of soil fertility, environmental degradation and may harm other crops due to the (mis)use of pesticides and fertilizers.

Lives improved

75 small-scale tea farmers and their families will improve their well-being by producing their own foods and thus saving money or earning money when they have a surplus to sell at the local market. The saved and earned extra money will further improve their lives by for example, expanding food production or taking their children to school.

On average 375 family members will benefit from improved health conditions, because there is more food on the table, that is healthy, diverse and safe.

Community impact

The entire community benefits from the increased food security as there will be healthier and more affordable food that will be made available through kitchen gardens. In turn, this will contribute to better well-being and reduced poverty levels among community members.

Moreover, families become resilient to climate change by adapting their farming style while contributing to a healthier environment through using locally available materials and farm inputs like compost, animal and farm-yard manure, organic pesticides and herbicides.

Budget

The project costs for 5 groups of small-scale tea farmers are Ksh526,050 (or €4,083). The donations will enable us to recruit farmer groups whom we have not yet reached due to limited funds. The donations will be used for:

Mobilisation and forming of 5 farmer groups of 15 members each.
Training farmers in agro-ecological agriculture techniques like composting, soil maintenance and livestock methods, as well as in cultivating kitchen gardens.
Providing seeds and planting materials to farmers.
Follow-up visits immediately after group training to ensure farmers are applying the techniques they’ve learned during trainings.
Conducting baseline and endline surveys among trainees to help measure impact.
Project staff allowances, transport and training materials (around 30% of total project costs).

Every additional donations will benefit even more farmer groups. COSDEP aims to collect in total Ksh1,052,100 (or €8,166) for 10 farmer groups, with in total 150 small-scale tea farmers, and with 750 family members benefitting. The specific villages that we intend to target in Kagwe are Githogoiyo, Kamahindu, Gachoire, Matimbei and Githirioni.

Testimonials

Mrs. Kimemia has been able to supply vegetables to her neighbourhood just with her small piece of land and she is happy because she has regular customers. She is planning to rent more land to be able to grow her agro-ecological business.

Mrs. Waithira Kimemia
With a rising cases unhealthy lifestyle in the rural Kenya villages that never existed before, COSDEP’s intervention is timely. COSDEP works with rural farmers to produce sustainable organic foods that will go a long way to improve their health and most importantly, increase their income through the sales from the surplus produce.

Isaac Waithaka, iMPACT direct