Green Dreams Organic Farming in East Africa

I believe in the saying ‘A river will always flow it’s course’………..no matter what we do, what we think , how we plan………….somethings take on a life of their own…………and now once a dangerous dump site our Organic Farm in Kibera is taking off in all sorts of directions.

Yesterday was the first commercial sale of product !! Totally awesome!!
So added to the advantages of food production, food security, environmental conservation, Youth Reform, we can now add INCOME GENERATION………….

Dominic has been keeping close tabs with the group and is largely responsible for their success. Hats off to you Dom!!
Yesterday whilst helping sort out the infrastructure for their vermiculture tanks, he managed to get these pictures of the group’s first commercial sale of kales and spinach.

The girl in the picture didn’t want her pic taken but the guys insisted as they are so totally proud of their farm

Notice the sunflowers growing with the crops. We’re hoping they will act as both a shade canopy as the weather heats up as well as a crop to help extract heavy metals within the soil. Today we are submitting leaf samples of all the crops (kales, cabbage, corriander, spinach and sunflower) for testing and will post the results asap.
Fingers crossed!!!!!

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.

Totally Awesome !!

The youth are ecstatic!! The farm is almost fully kitted, the first of its kind in Africas largest slum Kibera,

Where there’s a will, there’s a farm!!

Dominic making sure the piping fits!!

A week ago we discussed the Kibera project with a business associate, Patrick. He was up from Uganda, touring projects and I remember asking him if he wanted to come to Kibera. I also remember how he stumbled and mumbled a mixed reply before agreeing,………a little apprehensively I felt.

Unfortunately the day ran out before we managed a site visit, and Patrick only had this blog to refer to.
Today he asked if we would take him and a friend to the project on the weekend. I asked if he finally had time to see it and he replied……….”We want to see it as we want to do the same in another slum near the industrial area.”

And that just made my day!!!

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.