Celebrating the work of Laikipia Rural Voices

By Bob Aston
The Laikipia Rural Voices (LRV) has just surpassed 200 blog posts this year. This is an achievement that LRV is tremendously proud of. It has certainly been a productive and busy year. It is worth noting that in 2013 a total of 91 articles were posted on the blog. This indicates that this year the various Citizen Reporters who have been writing articles for LRV have not only written twice as many articles as next year but they have set a mark that will be hard to break in 2015.

LRV has also seen an increase in number of visitors in the blog. The blog has already registered more than 58,000 visitors.

ALIN representative receiving Yobloco Award

 The LRV was started by Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) in 2011. This was an initiative aimed at promoting citizen journalism by training young people in basic Journalism skills such as photojournalism, news writing, creative writing, feature writing, Interviewing, blogging and media laws and ethics.

Blogging on agriculture and particularly on successes and issues faced by youths engaged in agriculture, highlighting the role and importance of family farming as well as issues pertaining to climate change, environment conservation and NRM enabled ALIN through LRV to emerge the best in East Africa region in the Institution category of Youth in Agriculture Blog Competition (YoBloco Awards).

The aim of the competition was to put into limelight successes and issues faced by youths engaged in agriculture, in urban and rural areas; and to encourage the production of information and the use of new information and communication technologies by young farmers groups and organizations interested in the youth in agriculture question.

Yobloco Award winners

“LRV brings information to the people even without really understanding the fact you get the information faster whether you are far from Laikipia or you are close. The agricultural information shared by LRV usually helps farmers to know the best type of crops to plant and as well as on agronomical practices,” said Elvis Nderitu, one of the avid LRV readers.

LRV looks forward to an even greater community involvement in its activities in 2015. LRV would love for you to join them. Jump on in, tell your story and see how it connects with someone on the other side of the world.

Please encourage your friends and colleagues to also start reading the blog. Sharing the different blog posts through the social media will go a long way in increasing LRVs audience.

This being the last blog post in 2014, LRV would like to wish all their readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May this year’s Christmas end the present year on a cheerful note and make way for a fresh and bright new year. God bless you.

Enhancing knowledge sharing through Laikipia Rural Voices

By Bob Aston

The Laikipia Rural Voices (LRV) was started by Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) in 2011. This was an initiative aimed at promoting citizen journalism by training young people in basic Journalism skills such as photojournalism, news writing, creative writing, feature writing, Interviewing, blogging and media laws and ethics.

ALIN’s initiative of training local communities on citizen journalism and blogging has also led the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) grantees from Laikipia County to adopt the initiative as a way of sharing their project experiences.

This is expected to not only enhance their online visibility but also help in closing knowledge gaps, improving accessibility of indigenous knowledge as well as ensuring that communities are better informed about Sustainable Land Management (SLM).

3 members of Upper Ewaso Narok WRUA being trained on blogging

Improving communities’ access to knowledge and skills is one of the activities that ALIN has carried out for years with a strong focus on small-scale sustainable agriculture, climate change adaptation, natural resources management (NRM) and other livelihood issues.

ALIN has been involved in knowledge sharing for more than 22 years now using various platforms that include use of videos documentation, exchange visits, open learning days and articles aimed at farmers and pastoralists. The organization has also been using two publications namely Baobab which features small scale sustainable agriculture and Joto Africa, a climate change briefing highlighting case studies on adaptation.

Many youths have been encouraged to join farming through the various LRV blog posts. They have been able to learn from what their peers are doing as well as gathering information about different crops and farming practices.

James Mwangi, 20, had his story featured in LRV and since then many youths were encouraged with his passion for farming and some even decided to start farming.

“Many youths read the article and some who had never thought about farming were encouraged to venture into farming. I was told that I am an inspiration to them,” said James.

On his part, James Mwai, 26, resigned from his teaching job to start farming after reading a lot of information about farming through LRV.

“I had gathered a lot of information about farming from ALIN and through the various blog posts that I read from LRV. This contributed to the reason why I decided to start farming,” said Mwai.

LRV has been at the forefront of promoting SOKO+ which is a digital commodity trading and information system linking small scale farmers to end retailers and Farm Records Management Information System (FARMIS-Kenya) which is a farm management and diagnostic tool based on the use of farm records.

The two products are dear to LRV as they help to empower farmers. Seeing farmers improve their livelihood is an issue that ALIN has always been keen on.

Blogging capacity building training by ALIN

LRV has now gone a step further and is now documenting ALIN’s project which seeks to strengthen community resilience to impacts of climate change and stewardship of natural resources in Baringo, Kajiado and Laikipia counties. The project which is being supported by Act! Change! Transform! (ACT) seeks to promote Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA).

Blogging on agriculture and particularly on successes and issues faced by youths engaged in agriculture, highlighting the role and importance of family farming as well as issues pertaining to climate change, environment conservation and NRM enabled ALIN through LRV to emerge the best in East Africa region in the Institution category of Youth in Agriculture Blog Competition (YoBloco Awards).

The award enabled ALIN to be represented at the Fin4Ag Conference: revolutionising finance for agri-value chains that had brought together decision makers from both public and private sectors with an aim of building a modern and high performing agricultural financing system. The conference provided an opportunity for ALIN representatives to learn more about the increasing importance of agricultural value chain finance, create new partnership and improve current project on working with farmers.

The knowledge gathered during the conference has now enabled LRV to document and disseminate information about agricultural value chain finance. Prior and during the conference ALIN representative who also volunteered as a social reporter managed to write a total of 8 articles that were shared in CTA blogs.

To date, ALIN has trained 188 community members on basic journalism skills and blogging and also helped community members to start their own blogs. LRV has so far registered more than 68,000 visitors while number of articles posted now stands at 401.

Other partners have also started using articles from the blog in disseminating information about farming. The work of LRV has also been replicated by ALIN across its Maarifa centres.

LRV has also been increasing awareness and understanding of the challenges faced by smallholders as well as raising their profile by focusing attention on its role in alleviating hunger, poverty, providing food security and improving livelihoods, while protecting the environment and biodiversity.

Laikipia Co-operative holds meeting to take stock of its activities

By Bob Aston

The Laikipia Produce and Marketing (LP&M) co-operative society on December 17, 2014 held a meeting at Sipili Catholic Church Hall, Ol-Moran Ward to update the cooperative members about the various activities that they have undertaken during the year and the activities that they intend to undertake in 2015. The meeting which was supported by Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) was also attended by Kilimo Biashara Profilers (KBP).

The members were informed that the cooperative was appointed to become a Grain Business Hub (GBH), under the Netherlands Development Organizations (SNVs) Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP).

Mr. Waweru Kanja, Chairman, Laikipia Produce and Marketing Co-operative Society informed the members that as a GBH, the co-operative will now be able to supply grains to schools throughout the year in Laikipia County. This he said will increase access to Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) market by members of the cooperative.

Mr. Kanja addressing the cooperative members

He noted that as a result of engagement with other partners like ALIN, SNV, Eastern African Grain Council (EAGC), MEA Ltd, Kilimo Biashara Profilers, Kenya Seed Company Ltd and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock the cooperative has been able to reach out to its members with a variety of services and also has increased its membership, sales and community good will.

The members were also informed that the cooperative has created a close link with schools under HGSFP courtesy of SNV and ALIN through match making meetings with schools food committees and head teachers.

They were informed that SNV committed itself in provision of office equipment (a laptop computer and a printer) to facilitate efficient running of the cooperative’s work and to support for other allied capacity building needs for the co-operative through training, linkages with markets and input service providers as well as hands on coaching on sound business management.
The members were also informed that SNV will support the cooperative to appoint a full time manager for six months. Mr. Kanja said that they conducted the interviews for the Co-operative Manager on December 16, 2014 and the selected candidate will be presented to the members in January 2014.

The Cooperative banner

“We now have a company personal identification number from the Kenya Revenue Authority. We are in the process of acquiring cooperative agency and mobile money transfer services,” said Mr. Kanja.

The members were informed that during the year, ALIN supported the cooperative in branding: design and production of a company logo, banners and acquiring a company seal for the cooperative.

ALIN has also has committed itself to supporting the cooperative by availing Information and communication technology (ICT) services through the Ng’arua Maarifa Centre, supporting farmers to keep accurate farm records and where possible, support the cooperative to implement prioritised capacity building areas.

Mrs. Veronica Kemunto, Secretary Laikipia Produce and Marketing Co-operative Society informed the members that the membership of the cooperative increased from 176 in 2013 to 400 in 2014. She said that the cooperative has sold 60 tonnes of fertilizer worth Ksh 3,300,000 and 26 tonnes of seeds worth Ksh 3,900,000.

She said that member’s shares contribution has increased from 689,900 in 2013 to over 700,000 in 2014. She urged the members to buy more shares in order for the cooperative to have enough funds that they can invest in supplying cereals through HGSFP. She also noted that the membership fee collection increased from 60,400 to 120,500 due to new members joining the cooperative.

The Laikipia Produce and Marketing cooperative society that emerged from the work undertaken by ALIN with the support of the Ford Foundation’s Expanding Livelihoods for Poor Households Initiative (ELOPHI) serves farmers in Laikipia. It is a vehicle for bulking, marketing and trading in farm commodities and other products and services.