Experiences in vegetable farming by Noontoto Women Group

By Faith Kisiangani and Monica Soila

On the bottom of Oldonyo-orok Mountain in Maili Tisa, Kajiado County, there lays a two and half acre land owned by a vibrant women group called Noontoto. Noontoto Women Group is made up of 25 women who grow tomatoes in a green house for food security. 

The group was formed in 2003 as a merry-go-round with the main objective of supporting each other economically.  Among one of their successful activities was buying and selling cows. This was a very profitable venture and many group members benefited from the profit. They would collectively contribute a given amount of money, buy and fatten cows for sell. They then used some of the money to pay school fees for children, buy household items for themselves and save the rest of the money.

The group's green house and elevated tank

In 2013, the group was lucky to get some support from Dupoto-e-maa, a Non-governmental organization (NGO) that works in Kajiado County. According to Mr. Simon Sitelu of Dupoto-e-maa, the project objective was to empower women in the county with relevant skills and tools so as to improve their livelihoods. So far they have supported 13 other women groups in the county. 

The package to the women groups included; a green house 5m x 16m, a solar powered water
pump, a tank with capacity of 2000 litres and drip liners. The group opted to farm tomatoes and sell them because of their high demand in the region.

The area experiences inadequate rainfall and most community members are pastoralist, keeping large herds of cattle. This fact has ultimately affected the groups’ tomato farming green house project because the first time they planted tomatoes, the plants failed due to lack of water.

The group then employed drip irrigation on the greenhouse by using water pumping technique. Despite this fact, the tomatoes failed the second time after being affected by a disease. Regardless of the two failures from the tomato project, the women are very resilient, hopeful and hardly discouraged. 

“This is the third time that we have planted the tomatoes in the greenhouse. We are very hopeful and we trust God that the plants will not fail us again. The good thing is that we have learnt where we went wrong the first and second time and made the necessary corrections,” said Mrs. Joyce Nairraba, Chairperson, Noontoto Women Group.

The group's underground water tank

The group has untapped potential to undertake many projects on their farm. They are endowed with two and half acres of land on which they have a green house project initiated by Dupoto-e-maa. The group got support from some Swedish donors hand put up a house that is leased to people for various activities. 

Noontoto’s main source of water is from a natural stream from the mountain nearby. This source is not stable since area experiences prolonged dry spells therefore affecting agricultural activities. The water collects into an underground tank and then solar pump is used to thrust water into the elevated tank then into the drips.

“Water is the hardest problem to tackle right now though we still trust God for the rains to fall soon. The reason why we cannot change what we plant in the green house is because of the high demand of tomatoes in our region compared to other plants. More so, Tomatoes are more profitable compared to kales,” said Mrs. Nairraba.

Solar powered water pump system has saved the women a lot of hustle and time. They were initially using donkeys to fetch water for the farm. At times they would use generator to pump the water; which was quite a challenge given the price of fuel. The introduction of this technology has lessened the burden especially because solar energy is free, clean, readily available and plenty in the area.

The group has big plans for the future. They plan to keep dairy cows on their piece of land. They also plan to start a chicken rearing project.