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Kenyan farmers turn to traditional ways to beat hunger

by Frank Nyakairu | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Friday, 16 October 2009 11:23 GMT

KIAMBU, Kenya (AlertNet)Â? Unlike many parts of Kenya, hit by prolonged drought, Kiambu is a lush district with green gentle slopes.

A few dozen kilometres north of the capital Nairobi, Kiambu is a major breadbasket for a country battling increasing food scarcity and rocketing prices for staple foods.

With Kenya experiencing less rainfall each planting season and more parts of the country becoming dry, farmers in Kiambu became convinced they would not be spared unless they changed their working practices.

Â?If very many parts of Kenya are being affected by drought and less rainfall, we would be wrong not to start planning now,Â? said Samuel Mbatya-Kungu, an elderly farmer in Kamburu, a village of 2,000 people.

The villagers have returned to traditional ecological farming methods using indigenous crops.

They say this approach has helped them to become food secure and put them on a path to being more resilient to climate-related challenges to their livelihoods in the future.

Â?What we have done is go back to growing indigenous crops like sorghum, pumpkins and potatoes which can grow quickly and require less rainfall,Â? said Mbatya-Kungu as he displayed large potato he had just uprooted from his garden.

Anne Njenga, who owns a quarter an acre of land, said she obtained food from nearly every food crops she grows.

Â?I use leaves of potatoes, cassava and pumpkins to make food for my family,Â? said Njenga, who feeds a family of five.

Food insecurity is acute in the Horn of Africa where three failed rainy seasons have left up to four million Kenyans needing food handouts.

Across the Horn of Africa an estimated 20 million people are food-insecure, according to the Famine Early Warning System, as harvests have failed in many places and food prices have increased by as much as 130 percent.

A local organisation, the Institute of Culture and Ecology (ICE), has been helping the farmers in Kiambu to adopt different techniques, including traditional organic methods, such as composting, which has helped them to move away from expensive chemical fertilisers.

The farmers said they now reaped benefits from what is usually seen as waste.

Â?I have been using waste from my cows to make manure for my gardens,Â? said Mbatya-Kungu.

ICE Programme Manager Martin Muriuki said the changes in Kiambu were part of AfricaÂ?s Â?Green RevolutionÂ? Â? but with a focus on benefiting local farmers and using organic methods.

Muriuki warned that a continued reliance on maize, a staple food for most of KenyaÂ?s 36 million people, would drive millions more to hunger.

Maize, which takes a long time to mature, is vulnerable to the unreliable weather patterns that Kenya is now experiencing Â? longer and drier spells, winds and storms that have got stronger and if there is rainfall it is shorter but more violent, according to farmers.

Some parts of Kenya have experienced over 70 percent crop failure, cutting maize supplies in the country by nearly one third, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).

Â?If farmers donÂ?t not change, by trying out more drought resistant food cropsÂ? and (continue to) rely on maize, Kenya will become more and more food insecure,Â? said Muriuki.

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