By Bob Aston
“We were initially 26 members but we
had to get rid of inactive members. We prefer to work with active members as
this will allow us to achieve our objective,” said Gabriel Kimani, a member of
Wangwaci Young Farmers Self Help Group.
He said that members have also been keeping
indigenous chicken. Each member started with 30 birds. They have been capacity
built by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries on poultry
farming as well as good farming practices. The patron of the group is the
Deputy Agriculture officer, Sipili Division.
Wangwaci Young Farmers Self Help
Group is a village investment group that was started in 2011. The group was
started by farmers who came together, faced with a similar situation; inability
to pay loans given to them by Equity bank. The main reason for defaulting was
due to drought that struck the area in 2009 leading to massive crop failure.
The group is comprised of 16 members,
seven male and nine female. Members have grown tomatoes and maize. They have
now propagated capsicum in a nursery and are waiting to transplant once they
finish harvesting maize.
Arid Lands Information Network officials at the group's farm |
Gabriel said that they were given a 2
acre piece of land near Wangwaci dam by the government through the Ministry of
Agriculture to cultivate. The Ministry expects them to conserve the environment
by practicing climate smart agriculture.
“We normally subdivide money that we
get when we harvest our produce. Part of the money will go to members while the
rest we reinvest in our projects,” said Gabriel.
Last year the group planted the H6210
maize variety and managed to harvest 70 bags. This year they planted Pioneer
maize which they have already started harvesting. Early this week they sold
6,800 pieces of green maize at Ksh 4 each. They group has also sold more than
80 crates of tomatoes.
“We decided to sell the green maize
as we feared that elephants might invade the farm. Some people had also started
stealing some. The price was very low but it was better than losing our produce
through elephant invasion,” said Gabriel.
Gabriel said that they have also been
practicing table banking. This has enabled the members to save and access loans
from their collections. They have been contributing Ksh 650 after every two
weeks thus making monthly contributing to stand at Ksh 1,300. During merry go
round they give the member that they have visited Ksh 5,200 to invest in a
livelihood project.
Nursery where group has propagated capsicum |
“Members have benefited a lot from
different training that they have received from the Ministry of Agriculture and
Livestock. This has empowered most members and they are now able to improve
their livelihood through agriculture,” said Gabriel.
The group has been irrigating their
maize and tomatoes using water from the dam. This has been an expensive venture
as they do not have a generator or pump. They have been hiring a generator and
pump which at times has caused a lot of inconvenience to the members.
Gabriel said that they were planning
to purchase a tractor but the plan did not go well. They have not given up on
this and they hope that one day they will own a tractor.
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