Green Dreams Organic Farming in East Africa

When I started this blog, I explained I was an absolute rookie to all things blogging. Today on showing Dominic the blog he reminded me to give an explanation on the dates on the first pictures. Actually, Wakio would be best to explain as she took the first pictures…………..It goes a bit like this……..we didn’t know how to adjust the date on the camera for a few weeks thus all the first pics are dated 2004!!

It really didn’t take 4 years to get this project off the ground though imagine if we took on a dump site the size of Dandora it just might!!

Happy reading………..:)

Su x

The Kibera Youth Reform Organic Farm originally a 3 meter deep garbage dump, is finally only days away from harvest!! The transformation which started in April 2008 has taken a mere three and a half months, prooving anything is possible.
In April, Claire Niala came to me with a proposition. The Kibera Youth Reform Group, a group comprising 70 girls and guys in Kibera who had decided to change their ways of crime, requested assistance with an idea they had. They wished to transform a garbage site into a farm, growing crops for their own consumption as well as for sale if possible.

To begin with, I needed to see the area in question and my friend Wakio Seaforth went into Kibera with Mr Saidi one of the representatives of the group. She returned with the following pictures

From then until now the youth have worked at a terriffic pace to make their dreams come true. Assisted by Dominic Wanjihia who trained them in setting up their drip irrigation system, Johara who arranged the soil tests, Zak who assisted in the early days, Claire who made the connections, raised finance and guided the group with their finances and myself…mainly co-ordinating, planning and advising, the following pictures are a testimony to the youth groups hard work and success.

Dominic always impresses me. No two things are done the same way if he has anything to do with it.
We are growing sunflowers between the veg as part of an experimental solution to cleaning the soil. Rather than the usual stoop and plant , Dom designed an easy planting tool, a plastic hallow pipe with recycled yoghurt pot tied to the top and a stick tied to the bottom. Without stooping all you have to do is jab the stick into the ground to make a hole, take a couple of seed from the pot and drop them down the pipe Done! No back ache farming!

The guys and gals in the youth group are almost fully fledged farmers.

The seedlings are almost ready. What a transformation!! The photos were taken on the 9th of June exactly two months from the date the Youth Reform boys and girls started to clear the dump site. We still have issues with the soil test and will try to intercrop plants that will extract the heavy metals, with food plants. When the crops and extraction plants are mature we will test them to see the effects. Hopefully the food crops will be ok?

Limuru Agricultural Youth Center is located about 30 km outside of Nairobi, in the beautiful highlands of Tigoni. It is roughly 4 km from the ex Green Dreams farm and sits on 40 lush acres of fantastic farming territory. The center is a haven for young agricultural students from all over Kenya. Most of the students have excelled in agriculture in their local districts however are unable to afford a higher education in this field. The center was founded to fill this niche starting off 40 years ago with 45 students growing forty years on to teaching 200 students annually.

The school curriculum teaches mainly conventional farming practices. After visiting a few times last year as well as hosting students on the Green Dreams farm during their practical attachment time, and recognising the huge potential for organic production, I spoke with the Principle Mr Henry Kirii and asked him if we could assist with adding an organic component to the center. Henry was ecstatic at the idea as he has a passion for organic and is a regular reader of our magazine The Organic Farmer.

As we walked around the school premises I realised the potential for not only teaching our future agriculturalists organic farming methods, but also how to use affordable appropriate technologies, how to develop their entreprenuerial skills, and also how to assist with income generation for the school via sales of their organic products.

Asides from the land allocated to crop production,the center also has a small dairy herd, a rabbit breeding section,a bio gas plant (the second ‘functional’ one I have seen in the country), a piggery (organic bacon :))(sp),ample water, incredibly willing and dedicated staff and 80 permanent students (which I relate to 80 managers………all managing their own plots)

As we closed down the Green Dreams farm, we donated drip irrigation and water tanks to the school as well as 6 Toggenberg dairy goats. We will now help the school utilise these assets in their organic section and will support them with markets for their products. The project is already underway as I write. Stay posted!

The soil tests were abysmal. Two samples were taken each representing half of the field. The field was transected into two halves, A and B. Then using a zig zag pattern, 30 soil samples from a depth of 30 cm were collected from each side. These samples were put into 2 especially designated bags and shaken. A single sample was then taken from each bag and taken to the labs. (We used this method as soil testing is hugely expensive. Thankfully the lab did our tests for free though they would have cost $125.00

The results can be seen on the attachment.soil-tests-kibera

The picture shows the clear separation between two soil types. The grey soil (closest) was brought in a year ago from a construction site.You can also see the office block at the far end and the area of space beside it just at the end of our planting beds, designated to be a community center.

Our samples were high in Zinc, Boron, Copper and Lead!! The sample that had the largest portion of the ‘construction site soil’ was the worst. The other sample wasn’t as bad but was still a little alarming.
I feel the contamination in the second sample was from the ‘construction site soil’ which due to the method we used in collecting the soil samples was in a lower percentage. I’m hoping that this is the case and to try to prove this we are now doing another test on the red soil area.

We have consulted with a few experts on how to decontaminate the soil, Anne Bruntse has advised us to grow sunflowers and indian mustard for a season, and then to destroy the crop………somehow…..
I will discuss further with her today over lunch…….

Our options are 1) To remove the soil 2) To redesign the plot and plonk the community center on the bad soil which will allow us to use their good soil for the farm. 3) To grow sunflowers and indian mustard. The problem here is these plants will be consumed as we are in the slums. It would look beautiful but would be dangerous.

I think we will probably go with relocating the community center and growing right up to the office block. It will mean rethinking the seed bed area, which ironically is already where we would need it if we have to change! So on the positive side of things, we are actually ahead of schedule

Meanwhile we have all learnt something new……..sunflowers and indian mustard extract lead and zinc from the soils!

Fingers crossed that the new test will come out in our favour!!

The guys on the ground who are relentlessly transfoming this dump site in Kibera into an organic farm.

Pic 1 Zakayo Simel, husband to Kendi (both working for Green Dreams Ltd) parents of beautiful Vanessa (3yrs).

In 2005 twelve of the employees at Green Dreams were couples!!! Zak who was in charge of deliveries met Kendi who was working on the farm side of the operations. They fell in love and the rest is history! Zak is soon to be in charge of our local sales distribution and expansion and Kendi currently runs The Organic Shop, almost single handedly and very competently. As the expansion plans are being drafted, he is working in the field, teaching and aiding the Kibera Youth Reform group set up their organic farm.
Zak is also keeping a photo log, we shall have him blogging soon.
The second picture is Mohamed, his t.shirts tells us he is a devote Arsenal fan! You can hear Mohamed on the earlier posted pod cast talking on behalf of the youth group and their endeavour to leave their ways of drugs and crime.
The geese in the photo are pretending to be cool and friendly.

Today the children of our organic farm had their first lesson in planting as the adults watched and learned through their childrens mistakes. We planted quite a variety of crops, some of those we had seen growing in the site as opportunistic plants, pumpkin, aubergine, amaranthus and others, cabbage, kales.

The kids were great. We had them demonstrate what they knew. One little fellow poured half a pack of seed into a hole whilst another made a row of holes and poured slightly less into each. It was interesting watching the swift changes in behaviour that came about with a little instruction from Zak.

The seed beds were prepared in blue crates, recycled from a Dutch importer of strawberry plants. Mohamed and Zak had selected the most appropriate soil from the location, finding red soil where most of the earth is grey black cotton like clay. The soil was alive with earth worms which is always a good sign!

We had 6 crates lined up very smartly, with children decorating the fringes, sticks in hand drawing drill lines for the seed.

As the earth in the crates was a little too damp thus clumpy and sticky, it wasn’t long before the kids found their fingers worked better than the sticks. They were so cute, working ever so diligently as they sprinkled the seed along their drill lines, often ending up with a mass of seed stuck to the end of their fingers.

The children were told to look after thier seeds and to check in on them every so often to make sure they didn’t dry out. They were buzzing with excitement which Joshua (My 15yr old nephew……..le journalist extrodinaire) managed to capture on tape as they giggled, sang, rapped and took over the show.

We were quite a contingent, Paula my sister, Joshua her son,Wakio our friend, Claire the special girl who brought us to this project, Dino -Kenyas David Attenborough and Zak my eyes and ears in the field. Dino spent the entire time scounting the site for insects, coming up with an incredible assortment ranging from butterflies to dragon flies, both good indicators of a balancing ecosystem. Joshua spent his time interviewing everyone like a true professional, hopefully we will have some of these recordings posted as a podcast in the near future……………………..when I figure out how to do it!! Both Paula and Dino took many photographs that we will have to post in an online album too…..again, when I figure out how to do it.

Technorati : Africas largest slum, David Attenborough, Dino, Kibera, Organic, Paula, Seed, butterflies, dragon flies, garbage site reclamation, organic farming

Todays Daily Nation Newspaper carried this story.

Food deficit: Things are not looking good

Publication Date: 3/24/2008

Although the skies have been overcast these past few days, and although the rain has fallen in some parts of the country, these are not auguries of good harvests this season, and the country is headed for acute food shortages in the next few months.

Besides unpredictable rains which have, in the past couple of years been falling at the wrong time, there are two other reasons for the looming hunger and starvation in many parts of the country.

The first one is the insecurity in Kenya’s breadbasket – the vast area in Western Province and North Rift where maize and other grains like wheat do well.

This region was badly hit by the worst forms of politically-related violence since December last year, leading to many of those who farmed the land being evicted, while arsonists had a field day setting granaries on fire without a thought as to what they will eat when the political fire in their bellies turned to cold ash.

This has had obvious implications. Some of those who grew food in the Rift Valley might not return to those areas. Most of the land where food is grown is, therefore, unprepared.

As a result, all the maize-producing areas are about to experience record deficits this season, and even if the weather pattern holds true, there is no likelihood that the situation will become normal.

The second reason is that the prices of inputs have hit the roof. The explanation for this is not clear besides the fact that for at least two months, it was not possible to bring in imported fertilisers and other inputs due to the violence.

According to experts, and by the Government’s own admission, the country may be faced with a five million-bag food deficit, wiping out the current grain reserves by August.

This is a grim situation. This country has faced natural calamities like prolonged droughts. Now, with this added hindrance of insecurity, murder and arson, it is unclear whether the Government has many options but to start seeking food aid early enough to stave off hunger.

What it cannot do is to sit on its hands and hope that things will look up. They won’t, any time soon, and the earlier it gets cracking, the better for the country.

It saddens me as we feel so helpless. If anyone had believed in Prep-Aid Famine Relief Seed Project we would have at least made a small difference.

The seed project was a huge eye opener for me, a reality check into how govt, Ngo’s etc function………..or rather strangle each other into ineffectualness (if there is such a word…………if not, now there is!)

And sadly, the donor in the US felt the project could not be tracked when it was on the ground, I guess measuring the health of our people is not as tangible as reading the statistics of those starving and dying.
Makes me a little disapointed. Wish more folk could work on gut feeling? Does it all have to add up to reports and reports of reports?

When I give , I don’t ask for reports , I give because I trust, I believe and quite frankly, I feel better for knowing I could do so without tangling the recipient up in issues that generally are saying ‘WE DON’T TRUST YOU’

It would probably cost more to track the project per beneficiary than the $0.70 cost of the seed packet.

My gut feeling is we will revive the famine relief seed project during the November rains (by which time hopefully we shall have set up a Green Dreams Trust) and that we shall have famine this year in Kenya. All efforts to avert the famine on a national scale seem too little too late.