Forestry Training & Finance for 800 Farms in Kenya

INTRODUCTION

Receive greetings from DNRC family. We continue to say thank you so much for your continued support which has enabled us to continue to work with 600 farmers in tree planting for both social wellbeing, environmental sustainability and economic empowerment. We can proudly say that we are on the right path in achieving these goals. For example the first trees planted in 2008 now the farmers are pruning for firewood and green charcoal for both domestic use and income generation. They are processing moringa for nutrition and soon will be harvesting trees for timber. The fruits like guavas, pawpaw and citrus are producing and supplying enough nutrition to the farmers who were once affected by malnutrition. By planting local tree species we have modified local microclimate and it’s now easy to plant more trees and the farmers testify that they are positively changing the local climate. This being the beginning of the year, we set targets for the year and started activities to achieve the same. Below are detailed activities achieved during the quarter?

The tree Nursery

We set a target to propagate and plant about 80,000 tree seedlings of not less than 30 different tree species in the end 2017.During the quarter, we mainly propagated the following species: Acacia polyacatha-1000,Acacia xanthopolea 1000, acacia Tortilis-1000, senna seamea-500, melia vonkensii – 100, balanities egyptica- 400, Grevelia robusta-3300 and eucalyptus camandulensis 4000.

Training and outreach program

During the quarter, DNRC outreach persons where mainly involved in recruiting and training farmers on different levels of tree planting. Those already trained in holes preparations and planting were trained in tree management especially weeding, manuring (chop and drop) and pruning. For the new recruits, they were mainly trained on DNRC model of working which emphasis on balancing both social, economic and environmental aspects of the community.

Other trainings which were covered during the quarter included: importance of trees, site selection to locate woodlots for the new members, composting, and food forest importance and establishment. All the 13 groups have been trained making a total of 575 farmers trained during the quarter.

Challenges

Transport and water is the main challenges we are facing. For water, as the nursery expand, more water is needed as the nearby river drys up during dry season and we have to scoop sand to get water. For transport, there is need for a vehicle (canter) to help in transport of seedlings and firewood for green charcoal.

Focus for the next quarter

Continue potting, and propagating more seedlings to meet our target as well as training farmers and individual farm follow-ups.

Introduction

Merry Christmas from DNRC family. During this quarter, we continued to work towards our goal of promoting sustainable development of resources of the dryland regions of Kenya in order to bring about improved livelihoods of the marginalized communities and people living there. Note that the trees we have been planting since 2007, they are big enough to influence the microclimate in the community. The farmers say that the place is cooler than before and they think it’s raining more than before. If true or not true, as you walk around the community you feel and see positive changes. As the trees shed leaves and decompose, they continue to build soil fertility and improve water retention leading to more productivity. As the farmers prune the trees as a form of tree management, the first farmer now have enough firewood for domestic use and DNRC use the extra firewood to make green charcoal thus giving income to farmers. Farmers are also harvesting big moringa trees for moringa powder for nutrition and sale for income. During this quarter, we mainly worked on issuing over 60,000 seedlings to our farmers to plant in their individual farms because it was rainy season, field day/ get together function for all the farmers and training and outreach work. Below are more detailed activities.

The tree nursery

In our annual planning for 2016, we targeted to propagate 60,000 diversified seedlings ranging from fruit trees, timber trees, medicinal trees; fodder trees etc. and mainly indigenous species. We by passed our target by 2,000 seedlings and produced a total of 62,000 seedlings. November –December is our rainy season so the famers were issued with these diverse seedlings to plant in their farms for different uses including biodiversity, timber, fruits, fuel, offer and fiber. We also issued our 6 schools to plant together with the children so that the whole community is involved. (See attached pictures during these activities)

Training and outreach program

During the last three months, our training and outreach staff were involved in training, site identification and preparation of holes in preparation for planting during the rainy season. Also we got some schools coming to DNRC demonstration farm for practical learning. (See attached pictures).

Field day/Get together Function

All the 600 small scale farmers working with DNRC came together on the 16^th of December to celebrate the successes of the year 2016, eat together and interact as a way of strengthening social fabric and sense of community. During the function, they cooked, eat together, danced and shared their experiences and planned for the year 2017.We always have two of these functions per year and it’s our way of building the community and social capital.(see attached pictures)

Challenge

• As the number of famers increase, the geographical distance from DNRC site is increasing to about 7 km to the farthest farmer. To carry tree seedlings and firewood, there is need for a vehicle to ease this challenge.

Focus for next quarter

• End of year staff meeting to carry out Annual planning for the year 2017
• More training on tree management and especially on the new farmers
• Tree seedlings propagation

                                                                                      MERYCHRISTMASS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017