S KITCHEN GARDEN (EAT MORE GREENS KEEP HEALTHY CAMPAIGN)

Inspiration;

Makueni County is classified as a food deficit and high poverty area. The area does not produce enough food to feed its large population due to the erratic rainfall. This project is a response to the local community’s desire to mitigate acute and frequent food shortage situations in the area. In response to this, CYENI has developed ready for scaling a creative and innovative kitchen gardening venture to enable its members meet their financial and nutritional needs. The project scaling shall be the through its Network of 500 members with aid of a team of consulted experts for technical support in a participatory model. This is intended to build the capacity of the participants in managing of the vegetables production venture.

What it does

The proposed Kitchen gardening project is an agribusiness social venture planned to help over 500 low income households replicate a proven innovative water efficient modified hydroponics farming model developed by CYENI CBO. The project aims to coordinate a network of mini gardens run by households in semi-arid Mtito andei division of Makueni county to grow organic vegetables for home consumption with surplus for sale. The income from this front will help households fight COVID-19 such in purchase of soap and sanitizers.

How we built it

We use recycled polythene bags, recycled water bottles and soil to develop water efficient and high yield kitchen garden for vegetables such as spinach, sukumawiki, tomatos, cabbages. We have successfully established a prototype training farm which we use to train and practical demonstrate to help other households replicate at their home with ease. About 50 members have been trained and are ready to replicate the model. Based on our experience into existing models and techniques for implementing community farming activities in the area and with the support and knowledge base of our technical support and expertise networks, the group will run the project in a two-stage process. a. PILOT DEVELOPMENT The first stage of the project is already done, involved the setting up of a successful demo site of the project site and establishing basic structures to enable production at the farm. The participants in this exercise shall include the experts to advise on the best production practices. b. SCALE UP AND REPLICATION The second stage will commence once the members are able to sustain operate the production process, to constitute a 3 -month pilot production period. The participants shall be assisted by the consulted experts in running the garden. During this stage more resources are provided for them to scale up what was learned during the first stage. The second stage also will focus on giving the members equipment and the tools that will make the operation sustainable and to ensure that they are able to run it without or with minimal external supervision and assistance.

Challenges we ran into

Lack of adequate funds to scale our pilot project to reach thousands needy household in Makueni county and beyond Limited marketing and information to potential beneficiaries of our project. Lack of vital implements, tools and inputs such green nets. Lack funds to support training of our interested groups.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Established a successful locally made hydroponics kitchen that conserves water and produces high yields of fresh vegetables. Mobilized 100 households willing train replicating of our successful model Trained 50 members of youth group ready for replication of the pilot

What we learned

There is high demand for fresh green vegetables in the area. Hydroponic farming id low cost yield and more water efficient than rain fed agriculture. Hydroponics is suitable for areas with erratic rainfall such a semi -arid Makueni County. Large production will be required to achieve economies of marketing this could be done by helping more farmer replicate the project and selling surplus production jointly as a cooperative.

What's next for ORGANIC VEGETABLES HYDROPHONICS KITCHEN GARDEN (EAT MORE GREENS KEEP HEALTHY CAMPAIGN)

Train and support 500 household replicate our proven kitchen garden project. For a cooperative society for joint selling of excess production. Acquire vital tools, implements and input to help smooth production and marketing logistic and operations. Popularize our innovation for increased replication in wider makeuni county

Built With

• farming
• hydroponics
• kitchen-garden
• nutrition
• vegetation