Pilot in Kisa West Almost Complete…
Our third and final permEzone pilot, with the farmers in Kisa West, finishes at the end of September. Plans are well underway to create a new organization to take all that we’ve learned from the three pilot projects in Kenya and Uganda and to extend the work to more and more farming communities over the coming years.
Meanwhile, we are happy to share with you the latest updates from the farmers in Kisa West as they go through the final Consolidation stage of their permEzone project, putting into practice what they’ve learned during their permaculture training with C-MRA, and ensuring that they have the community-wide structures in place to continue working together for the long term.
Meanwhile, we are happy to share with you the latest updates from the farmers in Kisa West as they go through the final Consolidation stage of their permEzone project, putting into practice what they’ve learned during their permaculture training with C-MRA, and ensuring that they have the community-wide structures in place to continue working together for the long term.
MEL - Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
A key objective of the permEzone pilot has been to use external monitoring, evaluation and learning to 1). share relevant information and experiences from other communities, 2) to learn as much as possible from each project, and 3) to ensure that the highest standards were being maintained through each stage of a project’s implementation. We set ourselves the challenge of managing the MEL processes in ways that wouldn’t compromise local ownership of each project. The emergence of the Covid pandemic while the pilot was in progress made this process even more challenging!
We finally got the external MEL back on track at the end of May. Sheena Shah, who is a member of the pEz Project Board, and leads the MEL team’s work to document the impact of the program, and build the project knowledge base, as well as leading on curriculum development, undertook a comprehensive on-site review of the 18-month Implementation Stage of the project in Kisa West.
Sheena’s comprehensive report brought us some wonderful stories of the good change being experienced by the lead farmers participating in the project, while highlighting some of the important lessons learnt for the programme’s commitment to continuing improvement. There’s a summary of her report at the end of this newsletter - you can download the full report here (pdf).
We finally got the external MEL back on track at the end of May. Sheena Shah, who is a member of the pEz Project Board, and leads the MEL team’s work to document the impact of the program, and build the project knowledge base, as well as leading on curriculum development, undertook a comprehensive on-site review of the 18-month Implementation Stage of the project in Kisa West.
Sheena’s comprehensive report brought us some wonderful stories of the good change being experienced by the lead farmers participating in the project, while highlighting some of the important lessons learnt for the programme’s commitment to continuing improvement. There’s a summary of her report at the end of this newsletter - you can download the full report here (pdf).
 The group also going through a short training on setting up kitchen gardens during MEL representative, Sheena’s visit in May. |
Training
One significant outcome of Sheena’s evaluation was the recommendation that the farmers receive a final ‘refresher’ course on the permaculture practices, to support them in their own continuing farm designs, and in their future farmer-to-farmer extension work.
The C-MRA team followed up on this recommendation by conducting a two-day refresher training workshop on permaculture practices with the 30 lead farmers. They split into two groups of 15 farmers each, and the main topics were farm layout (with the emphasis on soil and water management), and gardening techniques.
On the basis of this experience, future projects will include a final refresher course.
The C-MRA team followed up on this recommendation by conducting a two-day refresher training workshop on permaculture practices with the 30 lead farmers. They split into two groups of 15 farmers each, and the main topics were farm layout (with the emphasis on soil and water management), and gardening techniques.
On the basis of this experience, future projects will include a final refresher course.
Long-term sustainability
With the refresher training completed, the C-MRA team continued their extension work with the farmers, with an added emphasis on identifying and supporting the community as they develop sustainable enterprises as an exit strategy of the pilot programme.
Some of the steps being taken in the community include:-
Some of the steps being taken in the community include:-
- The 30 lead farmers have registered a Self Help Group which will enable them to continue with the activities initiated with C-MRA during the pilot phase
- Through this Self Help Group, they’ll create a nursery for raising vegetable seedlings and establish a model garden with different techniques to act as a field school to the members and surrounding communities.
- Three major enterprises have been identified to generate income to the community and their households, including: growing vegetables to sell as food to the community, vegetable nurseries to raise seedlings for sale to the community, and local poultry rearing for eggs, meat and manure.
 Alfred’s farm who is one of our lead farmers embracing the conical/ pyramid gardening technique for household nutrition and incomes. |
Nursery
To continue supporting the farmers in Kisa West, and the beneficiaries of future projects in Western Kenya, C-MRA has established a central nursery. This will act as a model nursery for training programme beneficiaries, and as a source of planting materials - including vegetable seedlings. The nursery has a variety of vegetables, E.g. kale, cow pea, spinach, black nightshade. spider plant, amaranths, crotalaria, arrow roots, lemon grass, spring onions etc..
 The C-MRA nursery |  |
Modelling Citizen Science
C-MRA has now established a model farm, which they are using to demonstrate and evaluate the relative productivity between vertical gardening and ground gardening. Programme beneficiaries can visit the model farm to see these practical demonstrations and replicate them as appropriate. Both conical gardens and sack gardens have been established, and their productivity can now be compared with ground gardening. By involving the farmers in this participatory process they are also getting practical experience and a better understanding of the concept of Citizen Science.
The C-MRA Model Farm
Sheena's Report from Kisa West
At the end of her external evaluation visit to Kisa West in May, Sheena shared a comprehensive report which reviewed the purpose and history of the permEzone pilot programme, and evaluated the 3rd and final pilot project in terms of:-
- Lessons learned.
- Lead farmer activities, including how their farm designs are working in practice.
- Extent to which each lead farmer has grown their community of practice and examples of their farmer-to-farmer extension activities
DAY 1 Conclusions
The farmers we visited all live within close proximity within one another and were also within walking distance when conducting these visits. The farmers are much younger compared to the past phases, making this context unique because they are also closer to the main city centre of Kisumu.
The farmers are open to learning new strategies and a few of the individuals were also new to farming when they first started the workshops. Permaculture is/was a completely new topic for a lot of them to dive into, but they dove into this with open eyes and hearts to ensure that they could transform their land and build livelihoods from this venture. Some of the farmers had already been practicing farming, but used all conventional practices like monoculture and growing maize mostly as their main crop, relying on markets to earn a livelihood. With markets being so competitive and volatile in the region, farmers are not able to retain any significant profit and succumb to crop loss. Now, having gone through 4 months of permaculture training, the farmers have completely changed their monocrop farms to polyculture farms that boast a variety of different crops and it is completely evident as you walk through their farms and listen to their stories pre-project. The farmers are proud to walk through their farms and show us around and the diversity.
DAY 2 Conclusions
It has been exciting to see this phase in action and to see how far the farmers have come and of course, how each farm varies from one another. This group is the most unique as they are young, vibrant and are closest to the city. Their youthful energy is what shapes the project and we can see this becoming a very successful phase. The farmers meet every Sunday and continue to share the latest with one another. Paul, Isack and Caroline (the C-MRA team) have a great rapport with the group and with Carol and Isack residing so close to the farmers and being part of the community, they’re able to check in on the farmers and encourage them. The farmers have a very positive outlook and have been very enthusiastic about the process so far. Each site varies, providing the opportunity for more learning and seeing what each farmer is applying to his/her farm. There is no sense of competition but cohesion amongst all farmers. With one final training/ refresher on proper garden bed design, going through basic fundamentals of using their land to the maximum and composting/waste management, we feel that they will keep improving their existing farms and gain more productivity on their land. They’re moving away from conventional farming techniques and are seeing the benefits of permaculture and mixed crop systems. They feel the wider community is seeing this already and are also coming to the group to learn about what they’re doing to improve their lots. Given the long dry periods that shook communities around the Country as a whole, the farmers here learned that they could continue growing drought resistant crops and still obtain a yield. Some farmers still need to be encouraged but a majority of them were still able to grow some food. Some farmers have seen how mini earthworks such as swales and pathways are slowing down water run off with the onset of rainy periods and are able to harness this. Access to water for some continues to be a big challenge, but they’re thinking of ways to continue to tap into water harvesting techniques that they can implement. There is no doubt that this collective will be actively changing their communities.
Their new and vibrant energy is changing the game of farming here in Kisa West, by applying vertical gardening techniques that could be encouraged, especially during dry periods. Some farmers are already actively leading the way and are spreading the knowledge, whilst learning from other groups outside of theirs.
The field extension team are very encouraging and are eager to engage with other farmers and stir the changes.
The farmers we visited all live within close proximity within one another and were also within walking distance when conducting these visits. The farmers are much younger compared to the past phases, making this context unique because they are also closer to the main city centre of Kisumu.
The farmers are open to learning new strategies and a few of the individuals were also new to farming when they first started the workshops. Permaculture is/was a completely new topic for a lot of them to dive into, but they dove into this with open eyes and hearts to ensure that they could transform their land and build livelihoods from this venture. Some of the farmers had already been practicing farming, but used all conventional practices like monoculture and growing maize mostly as their main crop, relying on markets to earn a livelihood. With markets being so competitive and volatile in the region, farmers are not able to retain any significant profit and succumb to crop loss. Now, having gone through 4 months of permaculture training, the farmers have completely changed their monocrop farms to polyculture farms that boast a variety of different crops and it is completely evident as you walk through their farms and listen to their stories pre-project. The farmers are proud to walk through their farms and show us around and the diversity.
DAY 2 Conclusions
It has been exciting to see this phase in action and to see how far the farmers have come and of course, how each farm varies from one another. This group is the most unique as they are young, vibrant and are closest to the city. Their youthful energy is what shapes the project and we can see this becoming a very successful phase. The farmers meet every Sunday and continue to share the latest with one another. Paul, Isack and Caroline (the C-MRA team) have a great rapport with the group and with Carol and Isack residing so close to the farmers and being part of the community, they’re able to check in on the farmers and encourage them. The farmers have a very positive outlook and have been very enthusiastic about the process so far. Each site varies, providing the opportunity for more learning and seeing what each farmer is applying to his/her farm. There is no sense of competition but cohesion amongst all farmers. With one final training/ refresher on proper garden bed design, going through basic fundamentals of using their land to the maximum and composting/waste management, we feel that they will keep improving their existing farms and gain more productivity on their land. They’re moving away from conventional farming techniques and are seeing the benefits of permaculture and mixed crop systems. They feel the wider community is seeing this already and are also coming to the group to learn about what they’re doing to improve their lots. Given the long dry periods that shook communities around the Country as a whole, the farmers here learned that they could continue growing drought resistant crops and still obtain a yield. Some farmers still need to be encouraged but a majority of them were still able to grow some food. Some farmers have seen how mini earthworks such as swales and pathways are slowing down water run off with the onset of rainy periods and are able to harness this. Access to water for some continues to be a big challenge, but they’re thinking of ways to continue to tap into water harvesting techniques that they can implement. There is no doubt that this collective will be actively changing their communities.
Their new and vibrant energy is changing the game of farming here in Kisa West, by applying vertical gardening techniques that could be encouraged, especially during dry periods. Some farmers are already actively leading the way and are spreading the knowledge, whilst learning from other groups outside of theirs.
The field extension team are very encouraging and are eager to engage with other farmers and stir the changes.
In Conclusion...
The farmers in Kisa West will serve as a benchmark for future projects, and be an exemplary resource for other groups to learn from. FAR-EA will continue to engage with them to help them continue their capacity building in terms of organizational development, enterprise development, and Citizen Science.
Please share this newsletter, and encourage people you know to sign up for future newsletters to help us build on the success of the permEzone pilot and make this incredible program available to many more communities of farmers, so that they too can re-shape the future of their families, their farms, and their local economies.
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