Kenya: Invest in the family to open up markets for the farmer

Transitioning from family farming to commercialization can significantly enhance farmer incomes and reduce rural poverty. In that, Farmer Field Schools have been playing an integral part in Kenya. Ask Esther Munani Kyalo and Josphat Muthui Kangata. Their routines, for a few months now, have been changed by these schools.

Esther is a mother of three living in the Miambani ward in Kenya’s Kitui County. She has followed a new ritual every Tuesday since the Kavakaky Farmer Field School was launched. Together with around 35 other women from her area, she walks to a nearby house where the group meets and breeds chicks in the small but brand-new poultry house. Sitting under a large mango tree, surrounded by the beautiful hills of this area, the community gathers to discuss, observe, learn and make decisions to improve their husbandry practices. The group is divided into three, and each sub-group conducts a livestock analysis, which involves observing, measuring and collecting data on the animals’ weight, height and health. Esther’s group chooses to focus their work on different feeds and the impact it has on a chick’s health and growth.

Once the data is gathered, each group presents its findings, discusses them with the larger group and suggests actions, such as choosing the best type of feed.

Even though the field school session lasts for three to four hours, and the wind gets hotter, Esther is constantly smiling. For her, attending these sessions is a way to improve her business and strengthen her community. The sessions are designed to empower participants in selecting and implementing new technologies, innovations and management practices. Beyond new knowledge, farmer field schools are often a way for farmers to produce or sell their products together and to have better access to information and innovation.

A few kilometres from there, Josphat Muthui Kangata starts his day with a tea, before tending to his crops, goats, and for a few months now, bees. A few plastic chairs behind the house of the 72-year-old farmer accommodate a group of honey producers every Friday. Facilitated by Ruth Kavinya, a community-based farmer, the sessions’ objective is to improve the quality and quantity of the honey they produce.

In Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands, such as Kitui, livestock production, including beekeeping and chicken brooding, accounts for as much as nine-tenths of a family’s income. However, before the field schools, both Esther and Josphat were experiencing difficulties on their farms.

“Many chickens were dying, and those who survived grew very slowly. It was very hard to get a decent income from chicken brooding as we could sell very few,” says Esther.

With knowledge gained from the field school, she introduced new feed, learnt about vaccination and bought new equipment. And the results speak for themselves: “Before, I had between 10 to 15 chickens. Now I have 295.” She is now proud to be a “renowned poultry seller” in the area and is determined to keep going.

Josphat, on the other hand, was already producing some honey but selling it at a very low price, given its poor quality. Yields were low, due to the destruction or escape of some bees during harvesting. With slight modifications to the traditional log hive, their honey is now pure. “Before, we would package merged honey and honeycomb and sell it at KES 80 (USD 0.62) a kilo. Since the onset of the programme where we learnt to harvest pure honey, we have sold a kilo at KES 1,000 (USD 7.80). Beekeeping has become our exclusive source of revenue.”

With new bee feeding and watering techniques, pest control and safety practices, Josphat’s group has increased their beehives from seven to 48.

Through its Investment Centre, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) helped design and support the implementation of Kenya’s National Agricultural and Rural Inclusive Growth (NARIG) project, financed by the World Bank’s International Development Association. The Centre promoted the country-wide use of farmer field schools to build the long-term capacity of farming communities, with the project reaching almost 300,000 farmers in eight years.

In Kitui County alone, more than 400 field schools have been formed. Gustavus Mwambui Muli, a government extension officer and the project’s master trainer in Kitui has trained 105 farmer field school facilitators.

“When you bring new practices, farmers are a bit sceptical. Through field schools, you give the farmers the opportunity to test them, compare them, so they can make informed decisions,” says Muli.

He already sees the impacts of the NARIG project: “Some farmers were selling chicks once a year, now they can sell three times a year because they adopted a faster-growing breed or chose better feed for the animal to grow faster and be sold earlier. Seeing the way the field schools have influenced the lives of people is a great source of satisfaction.”

An FAO flagship tool, farmer field schools have been implemented in Kenya on a large scale through the NARIG project.

“The use of farmer field schools came in handy because we were able to train community-based farmers as facilitators in 21 counties. All over the country, around 11 000 field schools were implemented, reaching almost 300,000 farmers,” recounts Mary Maingi, National Coordinator of NARIG’s community development.

Farmer field schools have been implemented in more than 90 countries in the world since the late 1980s. As a partnership between FAO, governments and international financial institutions such as the World Bank, field schools allow farmers to harness technologies and technical expertise and turn these into great impacts on their farms and livelihoods.