Green Dreams Organic Farming in East Africa

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 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?

Amidst all the usual chaos in the shop,the much awaited Cooler arrived!!! It was like christmas all over!!

At the last minute I had decided to have her branded and this was really a good idea. She looks fabulous!

After about an hour of heaving and lifting, aided by all the man muscle in the complex, the security gaurds, the hair dressers and the folk that delivered the cooler………….thanks guys!!……….we finally had her in her designated position. She weights close to a million tons! …………..I didn’t dare tell anyone at the time, but I knew she had to be moved. We were far too exhausted and our beautiful glass mosaic floor was suffering. Even though we were pushing her on top of thick card board padding, the coaster wheels still left a path of crushed glass in their wake!

There was no doubt in my mind she had to move though, ………after we recovered, and with a better plan to protect the floor……….

Nevertheless, as soon as we were allowed, we switched her on and loaded her up…………………she has achieved everything we were looking for, better visibility, more volume capacity for less floor space (she has five shelves and is taller than our other fridges) more economical (being commercial in nature rather than domestic as our other fridges, also due to the door system….sliding glass doors) and she just looks majestic if one dare say that about a cooler. Being branded she also improves the aesthetics of the shop…………………………I’m still not convinced about her position and know she has to be moved………………….another day, another plan. …………..Meanwhile I intend for her to look unlike any other cooler in town. To achieve this we need to encourage our suppliers to start value adding, and packaging thus creating their own product identities……………….first start, the cheese guys…………the mozarella and ricotta…………..watch this space!

The Organic Shop in Gigiri shopping center is exactly one and a half years old now. We started with a fairly large supply of fresh products coming from our local organic farmers, both small scale and exporters and after about three months our supply chain started floundering. This was largerly due to the increase in demand from the shop and growth of our Box Scheme. From then until now supply is still erratic and we hope that this year will see sustainable growth in production. The industry has moved from over supply with very few markets to undersupply caused by a growth in markets. It is a great position for our small scale farmers as the opportunities are finally opening up. As an organic trader, we pay our farmers premium prices, and expect authentic organic products of great quality. To achieve this the entire industry must work cohesively. The important players include our networking body KOAN , and certification body EnCert.

Our shop system allows a flexible entry point into the markets for our small scale farmers. Those that can prove they have been trained in organic production can supply for a period of 3 months during which time they recieve premium prices for their products. After this, they can only continue to supply if they have joined a certification scheme.

Certification has it’s costs and must be fully understood fully by our farmers. Training and capacity building is required in this area.

We aknowledge our farmers pay higher costs to produce organically, including the cost of certification.
We recognise our farmers are stewards of our environment and honour and encourage them .
We pay our farmers premium prices as we believe it is their due for their involvement as organic producers and stewards of our fragile planet.

Technorati : Box Scheme, EnCert, KOAN, Organic Certification, The Organic Shop, small scale farmers

Today was spent juggling my time between meetings and the little kitchen in the back of the shop. The plan was to teach Angela how to make fruit smoothies. Angela, originally a supplier, is soon to take over the running of the shop. A food technologist by training, she started up her own business in mushroom production a few years ago. As with most products, you find the reality of sales can be a little below your expectations, and where there was a huge drive to introduce mushroom production in the country as an alternative source of protein, Angela soon found the obstacles were not in production, but rather in consumption. We’re not a mushroom eating nation, ……….we’re Africans, we like meat!

During her mushroom producing days (which we hope to revive) Angela spent much of her time educating people on the nutritional benefits and cooking options of mushrooms. She was at every farmers market and soon had a variety of products including dried mushrooms and dried powder mushrooms.

One of the biggest strengths of any entreprenuer is being able to recognise when it is time to fold the towel and put it on the shelf…………….as opposed to throwing in the towel. Angela uses the terminology of ‘bleeding’, her business was bleeding money and it was time to shut it down. Her products were exceptional and we miss them in the shop.

Her opprotunities in the shop allow for her to expand her creative ways in a variety of products. I feel very happy and confident she will be exceptional and look forward to the future of having a whole range of exciting new products.

So today was largely about getting a hang of the machinery. Our shop kitchen, kitchenette……more like transformed 1.5×1.5m wash room……….more on that later………barely allows for two people to work at the same time. We did however manage to produce fresh organic carrot juice, carrot and pineapple juice, and a smoothie blend of papaya and pineapple. And just because we could, we developed a fantastic new product, a baby banana,yoghurt and vanilla smoothie, the first of our dairy smoothies range! I’ve always cringed at the idea of blending yog and fruit…..so this was quite out of the box for me. I was however pleasantly suprised at how delicious it was!………so tomorrow, Kim (who you will hear about later……..) will send us some of his fantastic yoghurt form the dairy and we will launch a new product!!

Angela amazes me with her patience and eagerness to learn and learn and learn. Another exceptional quality she has is that she is ever ready to teach too and plans to show Ndichu……(more on him and his mum later too!)……and his crew on the farm how to produce mushrooms.