Green Dreams Organic Farming in East Africa

Agri mobile app developed by Su Kahumbu Stephanou of Green Dreams Ltd.

First Prize Winner of Apps4Africa Competition 2010

What you didn’t know about a COW

Cows like humans have a 9 month gestation period and a healthy cow will produce a calf a year plus milk for 10 months (305 days)of the year. In order to produce a healthy calf and optimal milk production, a cow must be given a 2 month ‘break’ from milking prior to calving. During this time she should be fed extra nutritious feed to enable her have a successful calving and subsequent good health for her milking period.

2-3 months after calving she is served again and the cycle resumes. Serving her before this period will result in possible abortion as she has not recovered from her last calving, and serving her much after this period will mean she gives birth at a later date whereby reducing her value economically.

The value of a cow thus is in her yearly milk yield and yearly production of a calf . Preferably a female calf that will grow into a strong healthy heifer for the same milk and calf production, or for sale.

Cows estrus cycle
Cows have a very short receptive period within their estrus cycle, only 11-12hrs, and will come on heat every 17-25 days until impregnated. It is therefore imperative that this window of opportunity is not missed when at the appropriate time.
In order to optimally manage livestock breeding, a farmer will try to avoid inbreeding and will either try to upgrade his stock using artificial insemination (AI) or ferry his cow to a chosen bull. In order to do this, he must be very aware of the estrus cycle of the cow by keeping good records on a variety of issues, birthing dates, bulling dates, insemination dates etc. Simply put a farmer needs to know when the 11-12 hr window occurs.

The current situation

Few farmers keep records. Some keep the AI ‘straw’ from the vet that indicates the bull ID. Most resort to using neighbourly bulls resulting in a high percentage of inbreeding thus poor quality livestock in the long run and deteriorating economics.
Using a bull can also result is reproductive diseases from the bull.

Most small scale farmers have 1-3 cattle and do not use AI for a variety of reasons. There is no service available in the area, they do not know about the reasons for using AI, they do not know how to identify the cow cycle thus miss the opportunity of using AI and finally AI may be too expensive.

Conventional Cow Calenders
Cow calenders have been used for many years to help farmers track the cycles of their cows. They normally consist of either a conventional calender showing important cow dates or a double wheel rotating cardboard tool. The problem with the conventional cow calenders are :

1. They are not readily available and normally only given out as incentive gifts with other cow inputs, medicines feed etc.
2. The cardboard wheel system is complicated and difficult to understand thus not used even when given as a gift.

Why iCow

1. All cow owners need to track the fertility cycle of their cows……..somehow, right?.
2. Most rural farmers have mobile phones or access to mobile phones ?

iCow is a tool that will help farmers track their cow cycles through their mobile phone. iCow is an agri mobile app.

How iCow works

iCow is a simple voice based mobile application that will help farmers track the estrus stages of their cows helping them to manage their breeding as well as cow nutrition leading up to the calving day. This will be done via a series of voice prompts and sms messages that will be sent to the farmer during the course of the 365 day cow cycle.

Farmers first register on the app and input relevant confirmed/known ‘cow’ dates. These include the cow ID, last date served, or last date calved.

iCow will send voice prompts to the farmer at intervals throughout the year, relevant to each specific cow at that particular time of it’s cycle. These prompts will not only be reminders, but also educational . In some instances the prompts will be followed up with an sms delivering important information e.g vet phone number.

E.g 1
Farmer inputs cow last date served as Oct 1 st 2010

iCow will send a voice message exactly 3 months later to the farmer advising him to have a PD test (Pregnancy determination) and will even explain the method and meaning of such a test to the farmer.

E.g 2

Farmer inputs cow last date served as Oct 1st 2010

iCow will send a voice message to the farmer 20 days later reminding him to observe his cow for the following week looking for any signs of being on heat as this would suggest that the last serving did not result in pregnancy thus the farmer must arrange for insemination once again.

This information is vital if the farmer is to maximize on his dairy production.

What you need to know …….

About iCow

iCow is one of many mobile agri apps being developed by Green Dreams Ltd.
These agri apps are plugins for the larger app Mkulima Farmer Information Service & Helpline (Mkulima FISH) currently under development.

Once plugged into Mkulima FISH , iCow will also be able to send the farmer an sms with the phone number of the closest AI service in his/her area and closest veterinary officer.

A year after the Kibera Youth Reform Group started their Organic farm, the farm is looking better than ever with an abundance of healthy crops ranging from Kales, cabbage, spinach, carrots, onions, okra, sugarcane, maize, tomatoes, eggplants, passion fruit, comfrey, dania and amaranthus to name a few!
(I can’t load new photos, seem to have run out of space and not sure what to do…….until I figure it out you can see them on my face book page

Su Kahumbu

also on this reuters report

Victor, Moha, Hassan and the others are probably the most interviewed and filmed folk in the Kibera slum home to over 1,000,000 inhabitants.
The success of the farm is now being looked upon as an interesting solution to urban food security and as a role model farm being emulated by a number of Youth Groups within Kibera and Dagoretti slums.

Kenya is now in it’s fourth year of failed rains, with the effects of famine being felt country wide, resulting in power rationing in the capital city of Nairobi due to low water levels in the hydro electric dams. Crop failure is the norm, talks of food security are high on donor and government agendas, the next few months as we wait for the November rains, will be telling. Kenya sadly is facing a huge famine……………again…………………sigh

And what have we done?
We’ve given our farmers subsidised fertilizer and ‘improved’ seed varieties …….and left them up to ‘shauri ya mungu’………….God will take care of us from then on, we have resorted to praying for rain.
And when and if it comes , no doubt it will come down in bucket loads flooding the plains and damaging the soil resulting in sweeping erosion before disappearing again , for years?
And we will blame the Government again. Where are the dams? The water catchment areas? The rain harvesting plans etc. And the Government will figure on bigger priorities, why build dams when the rains have gone afterall?

So this is the way I see it. The farm in Kibera is green productive and sustainable. Why? Drip irrigation and hard work that repays. It is small in size. But then so are most of our small scale rural farms. So why are our small scale farmers not doing the same. Simple, they do not know how to.

The avarage age of Kenya’s small scale farmers is 65yrs old, 70% of whom are women. Many have never left their villages and sell their goods at farm gate to brokers. How would they ever know about drip irrigation? Could they afford it? Would they know how to install it? Are they too old and is it too late? The fact simply is with global climate change we must change our production methods with the biggest change being made around our water use. So we must make drip irrigation, installation maintenance and affordability, available to our small scale farmers in order to feed ourselves as a nation.
Kibera is a great example. The Youth are longing for employment, are not interested in the hard labour of digging the hardpan soils yet are easily converted to agriculture with exciting new technologies. They require capacity building, skills support and encouragement which will ultimately result in employment. If we can make this happen for the Youth they will feed the nation. Green Dreams Foundation is working on the journey.

Gilgil is a town resting on the floor of the Great Rift Valley, about half an hours drive up towards Nakuru from famous Lake Naivasha. The land rises around the town in spectacular volcanic ridges upon which most of our small scale farmers in the area live.
Great volcanic soil enable farmers to produce without much need for artificial inputs, however, water is a problem. Whilst there are a few scenic dams and lush river valleys, due to the deforrestation in the Aberdares area, the rivers now run dry for most of the year.

Transporting products down these perilous ridges is also a huge challenge and is mainly done by bicycle, donkey and of late motorcycle. For large harvests like potatoes, lorries are used, and are more often seen stuck in the muddy gullies which become treacherous during the rain season.

Given the above senario, it’s not suprising that farmers struggling with all of these external factors and infrastructures remain poor most of the year.
In 2006 we took an Organic training program sponsored by BioVision to the farmers in Kigogo. We trained over 60 men and women on organic production emphasising the need to retain and build on soil fertility. Most of the farmers have a mixed cropping system which means there is availability of animal manures, however not all knew how to compost effectively, and some found it less laboursome to simply use artificial fertilizers. Given that an acre of land requires 4 tonnes of compost compared to 50kg of artificial fertilizer, what would you choose to apply under the blazing African sun?

Artificial fertilizers are lighter, can be applied quicker, and produce instant results. How do we then convince farmers that they should look at a more labour intensive and slower form of farming?
In Gilgil many cannot afford artificial fertilizers, so not alot of convincing was needed, just capacity building on effective composting.
No one will work excessively hard unless they get a good enough reward and thus, we set out to find markets for the products coming from the hills. Over the course of the past two years, we have had an intersting stream of organic products coming into our store The Organic Shop, the most famous of which is the Gilgil asparagus. This crop was originally identified due to it’s close resemblance to an indigenous weed in the area. It was soon seen as a cash crop and many farmers were taught how to produce it even though it takes 2 years from seed to viable production!!
When the international buyers eventually stopped purchasing and abandoned the crops, some farmers continued to grow it and began looking for local markets. So what has all of this got to do with rabitts???

Asparagus is harvested every day yet brought down to market every three days. It has a fairly good shelf life and is hardy when being transported (unlike pawpaws It has it’s own niche in the market place as no one else really grows the crop.Gilgil just has the perfect conditions.
It makes logical sense then to figure that if other products could find a niche, be exclusive and of high value, then perhaps all was not lost but rather about to begin for the farmers in the area.

During our training we talked about value addittion and gave examples of organic products including meats , most of our farmers have never been to Nairobi let alone into a supermarket and were very suprised to learn of the possibilities……………….but……………where would they get the knowledge?

About 6 months ago, an elderly man called me and said he wanted to talk to me about rabitts. I immediatly thought ‘Salamonella’!! I’d seen farmers with skinned rabbits in plastic bags festering in the sun at farmers markets .!! None-the-less and not to be put off, the old man and his daughter travelled to Nairobi to discuss the possibilities. I gave them as much information as I could about the cold chain, statutory labelling requirements, slaughter house hygiene etc. The old man asked me to put my requirements in writing, which I did and off they went. I felt mean as the obstacles were simply too high for these guys to meet up in the hills.

So I was pleasantly suprised when last week we recieved our first batch of rabitt meat samples!!! Frozen in half kg packets, labelled and looking very professional!!!

The couple had taken our recommendations to the Government and managed to get an entire project funded that now has 4 farmer groups growing 2000 rabitts!!! ……and not just any rabitts, serious hybrid types too from Denmark and California.

Yesterday we sent out our quality assurance expert Davis Nalika to do an assessment as well as to help the farmers improve on packaing details and as soon as this is done, Nairobi will have a supply of rabitt!!!

Asides from a serious feel good factor, I have learn’t never to underestimate an old farmer.

And I have just learnt that I have met my limit and cannot upload the photos. So have to figure this out but will definitely send some soon!!

On another topic got a mail this morning that said we were listed on Africas top 100 Best Blogs for learning about Africa. What an honour!!!

http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2009/100-best-blogs-for-learning-about-africa/

The President of Kenya his Excellency Mwai Kibaki is soon set to sign a flawed Biosafety Bill that has caused much uproar and seen farmers in Kenya staging a week long campaign to stop the signing.

On the 22nd Dec farmers took the streets and staged peaceful demonstrations in the major cities of Nairobi, Machakos, and Kitale where they carried placards portraying their messages of discontent about the flawed Biosafety Bill to the President.
Petitioins are underway on the ground as well as online for concerned citizens of the world to assist the farmers in this cause. Dec 31st is the final day this year the Bill can be signed. Petitions will run up until the 27th before they are presented to the President.

Whilst aknowledging that a Biosafety Bill is indeed needed, the current Bill having been already passed in Parliament, does not cater for the following issues

1) There is no allocation for LABELLING of GMO ingredients on products .
Consumers will therefore have NO choice on whether they consumer GM products

2) There is inadequate measure of redress against any contamination, fall out etc in the Bill. Thus, should the environment or human health suffer as a consequence of GM products , Kenyans will have no way of getting adequate compensation according to the Bill as it stands today.

3)Finally , we at the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition believe the Bill has not involved the stakeholders in the industries it will impact upon. It was not based on an all inclusive transparent process, but rather a quick fast tracked bill which we feel is inadequate.

We would like to see the Bill taken back to the drawing board and only passed when the people of Kenya are both knowledeable and in agreement on its contents.

Please help us in our endeavours to STOP the Presdidential signing of this Bill until it is the best Biosafety Bill Kenya can produce.

To join our online petition, go to

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/3/stop-the-kenyan-president

Be part of something that is bigger than the sum of us all!!

Thanking all who stand up for our cause,

Su

The Kibera Youth Reform Group transformed this garbage site

to this lush organic plot!!

105 days from start to harvest!!