PACJA donates sunflower seeds to farmers in push for food security through

The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance has increased its efforts to put smallholder farmers, indigenous people, youth, women and communities at the bottom of the pyramid at the centre-stage – through locally-led actions.

Supporting one of these initiatives last week was the Kenyan government, which promised to support small-holder farmers to fight food insecurity, especially with the recent Covid-19 pandemic that has left unprecedented economic impacts.

Speaking in Meru on Friday September 11, when he presided over the launch of a Tujiinue Tena project, in which  PACJA distributed at least 9 tonnes of sunflower seeds to small-holder farmers, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya said environmental conservation was key in ensuring food security as well as safety for the biodiversity.

“To sustain our environment, the government, from the Office of the President, has sent me with a cheque to enable these residents to dig boreholes. I have actually launched one borehole today at Athiru Gaiti and the other one will be built at Mulika to enable those people to get more water,” said Munya.

Lately, Climate change and Covid-19 have exacerbated farmers’ plight, with lesser farm outputs in Meru North at a time there is the urgent need for more to cater for increased populations locally. This, when a lot of farmers that depended on Miraa (khat), which is the major income earner here, are still reeling in stress with the Somalia market closed due to Covid-19 restrictions in movement of goods and people. Yet some of them are still servicing loans.

The Meru North has also not been spared of the drought, pests invasion and diseases attacking their livestock and plants, just as the rest of the country is.

PACJA sought to seek partners to help alleviate some of these problems, by complimenting crops grown in this area with sunflower, a drought, pest and disease tolerant crop, besides guaranteeing the farmers market for their produce.

PACJA Executive Director Mithika Mwenda, speaking at the Friday event, called on the national government to assist small-holder farmers to satisfy the growing population’s food and nutrition needs, and further contribute in the country’s economy through exports.

Dr Mwenda said climate change had threatened food security in Kenya and the rest of the world but also presented an opportunity for small-holder farmers to make money through agri-business.

The project is jointly being implemented by PACJA and Bidco Africa and will involve several producers working collectively and proactively, organised into a cooperative. PACJA and Bidco will enhance the adaptive capacity of farmers in this project using agribusiness SME model that will enable them to grow sunflower for sale at a guaranteed price.   

“There will be a ready market for the sunflower. We shall be buying the product for you. We have been importing it from Malawi and Tanzania and because we want to create employment opportunity to our people, we have cooperated with PACJA to bring this crop here for you,” said Patel Shailesh, the Bidco Company representative at the event.

Mr Munya said more boreholes would be dug to provide water for irrigation and construction of Ura Dam along the Ura River.

The Alliance bought the sunflower seeds from Kenya Seed Company, which added to the initiative another 200kg, all which were distributed to farmers on the launch day.

“With Covid-19, we learnt the role agribusiness can play in an economy. Food is a basic need that cannot be postponed, and those who had food felt safer when the pandemic hit. Those who had extra shared or sold to those who needed,” said Dr Mithika at the event held in Kanuni ACC, in Igembe South within the Meru North region.

The climate and Covid-19 crises have brought the SMEs, like those that fall under agro-industries, which also depend on nature for production, to their knees. Because of climate change, unpredictable rain patterns are messing farmers and food production countrywide, especially in arid and semi-arid areas.

During the Tujiinue Tena Project launch, the Bidco and PACJA teams mentioned separately that the problems faced by SMEs and small-holder farmers in Kenya were replicated in the rest of the African continent, whose population continues to grow at a rate of 3 per cent per annum.

According to statistics, Africa is therefore forced to import food worth $35 billion every year.

Closer home, the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research Analysis report released in March 2020 showed that food insecurity affected at least 14.5 million Kenyans every year, with children under age five being some of the worst affected, as the years between 2014 and 2018 saw a lot of them exhibit stunted growth.

Dr Mithika said this offered opportunity for farmers in the Meru region, “a land blessed with good soils and some dependable rain” to satisfy the “growing population food and nutrition needs locally” through agri-business that also supports environmental conservation.

“The worry of a small-holder farmer today is palpable. Many, even in the largely rich lands of Meru, are not getting the best of returns on their investments,” he added.

The Executive Director urged the government to help farmers enhance their access to information, appropriate technology, business models for increased scales of production and other means of production, “including land, capital and mainly market for produce”.

He said that would help farmers to think outside the box. “I urge the national government to give this region the attention it deserves, even if it means partnering with foreign entities. Farmers need aid to get the best rewards for their hard work and play their role in poverty reduction and food security”.

Small-holder farmers, especially those in arid and semi-arid areas, who rely on rain-fed agriculture, as well as SMEs, like those that fall under agro-industries, which also depend on nature for production, are expected to gain from the Tujiinue Tena project.

“While companies may be frustrated by inadequacy of quality and quantity goods, which are tied to seasonal cycles of production, the small scale producers are stuck with large quantities of produce that lack competitive markets, infrastructure and management of post-harvest losses. Direct link between the companies and the local producers is hampered by lack of knowledge of one by the other, their location and ways of working,” said Dr Mithika.

Local farmers have also been victims of exploitative intermediary buyers, who reap excessive profits at the expense of the real workers, and who invest more.

The Tujiinue Tena project will also be devoid of such, with Bidco Oil expected to deal directly with the farmers. “This disintermediation can help break the cycle of poverty, facilitated by regulatory authorities, responsible private businesses and new technological solutions that enhance access to market information in partnership with development actors,” said Mr Saleshi.

“This will be complemented by all efforts to connect farmers to direct market, guaranteed price for their produce and ensuring that they get value for their investment,” he added.

The Tujiinue Tena project is an approach driven by multiple governmental and non-State actors to mobilise for post-disaster recovery that reduces vulnerability to future disaster and builds community resilience to address physical, social, environmental and economic vulnerabilities and shocks.

It is boosted by arguments that even before Covid-19 struck, the world was rapidly transitioning towards sustainable development trajectory occasioned by adaptation of 2015 Paris Agreement, whose implementation was to kick off in 2020, but which has evidently been disrupted by the pandemic. At the community level, a “marshal plan” is necessary to pull people out of the quagmire of desperation. It behoves the government to institute locally-adaptable, pragmatic strategies to address acute liquidity constraints on the struggling farmer-based SMEs and households to revive diminished production and ensure wananchi have access to sufficient food and nutrition.

As for the Meru North region, sunflower farming is a prudent choice, as it assures people of rapid recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, while at the same time withstanding the erratic rainfall patterns occasioned by the changing climatic conditions. The crop has a short life cycle of only three months, making it a good choice, as it will assure the farmers quick income. Sunflower can be used in the crushing industry for vegetable oil production, with the by-products further being used in making animal feeds.

The crop is therefore expected to contribute to enhanced food security and have a multiplier effect in livestock in Meru County and Kenya at large.

In the long run, this project is expected to help smallholder farmers to supplement their food, nutrition and livelihood sources through introduction and promotion of sunflower cultivation, as well as increase household income of at least 1,500 families through enhanced agribusiness model based on sunflower farming.

It is also expected to develop a replicable public-private sector business model that will enhance adaptive capacity of rural farmers affected by climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Farmers appreciated the effort by PACJA and its partners and vowed to give the project their best shot.

“Some of us have really suffered since the miraa market in Somalia was closed due to coronavirus restrictions. This is a project worth investing our time and energy in, and will make our now seemingly unrewarded land more productive,” said Boniface Mugambi, a farmer locally.