'WE HAVE FAITH WITH ALIN'

It is quite clear that the community  ALIN serve appreciates the services offered at different Maarifa centres.All categories of users appreciates the efforts ALIN through its Maarifa centres to disseminate practical and useful information in their community.

During the recent open day in Kyuso the above was clear. Every body who had a chance to speak to the particpants had a reason to thank Kyuso Maarifa centre for. The District Commissioners Kyuso Mr. Peter maina said during his speech that he has related very well with ALIN and more so Kyuso Maarifa centre. He added that every government department represented in Kyuso has benefitted through one way or another.  he said numerous people are able to access information that they couldn't.

More over he said most of his officers have been trained on ICT skills in the centre. He said that the free training have helped many people including farmer, NGO/CBO , Students and government officers. He said among the officers trained is the District Crimainal Investigation Officer (DCIO)- Kyuso. What the DC found interesting is that even the old are getting trained on this skills. He was happy to award certificate graduates of over 60yrs.

He said i quote "with what ALIN has done for us, i will be willing to help them according to my ability  " said DC " who ever will try to separate me with ALIN and Kyuso Maarifa centre will face the consequences "

He also complimented the work done  by Kyuso Maarifa centre field officer Mr. John Njue. He asked whether everybody who uses Maarifa centre services knows John. He was amazed to find even the Farmers who had attended the open day knew the field officer.

He advices the community to utilize the centre and advised the youth to use social sites positively.

Kyuso Open Day

Introduction

An  open day is an exhibition organized so that companies, organizations, Government departments and community self help group can showcase and demonstrate their latest products, service, study activities of rivals and examine recent trends and opportunities. It is open to the public, while others can only be attended by company representatives (members of the trade) and members of the press.

Kyuso is an ASAL area found in lower Eastern Province, it covers a total of Three division which are Kamuwongo, Ngomeni and Kyuso.  Although the area is quite dry most times in the year the economic potential is quite high and cuts across all the sectors. This includes ventures in agricultural activities and business trading in a quite number of goods and services.

                                                                                                                                 

The climate of the district is generally hot and dry for the greater part of the year. The maximum mean annual temperature ranges between 26⁰ C and 34⁰ C whereas the minimum mean annual temperature ranges between 14⁰ C and 22⁰ C. This translates into an average annual temperature of 24⁰ C. The district experiences a long stretches of dry, hot seasons between the months of August and September and again in the months of January and February.

The Kyuso Maarifa  centre together with stakeholders has been offering servivecs enhancing information delivery and utilization so as to ensure that the community is food secure, increase in literacy level and also increasing the income level.

This year the maarifa centre through outreach programme has been conducting 3 outreaches and 1 open day in a month.

July open day was very wonderful since it involved almost all the stakeholders in the district. The following stakeholders participated:

1.       ALIN HQ

2.       Drought Management Officer

3.       Kenya Adaptation to Climate Change in Arid Land

4.       Catholic Diocese Of Kenya 

5.       ACTION AID

6.       POLYTECHNIC

7.       MUKY ORDAP - CBO

8.       WEMHIS

9.       ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Every stakeholder played a different role e.g.

1.       ALIN played overall responsibilities

2.       DAO will be exhibiting dry land farming techniques

3.       KACCAL have a project on site on climate change adaptation

4.       DMO will be distributing leveling boards, badge and T - Shirt to the graduated farmers in terracing

5.       CDK is the sponsor of the polytechnic

6.       Muky to exhibit value addition of the local food

7.       Action Aid for community mobilization

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 [JJ1] NUMBER OF DIVISION

Upcoming Open day

This is to inform all the followers that Kyuso Maarifa centre will be holding a wonderful open day which will bring together all the stakeholders in Kyuso and the lines ministries. The open day will involves farmers coming to learn various climate change coping mechanism from others, techniques to ensure there is food security in Kyuso. The participants will also be sensitized on the integration of ICT in other fields.   The theme of the day will be: Promoting information technology for food security and climate change. The expected chief Guest will be the Provincial Director of Agriculture (PDA) and the host guest will be The DC- Kyuso.

Other contributors will be:

1.       ALIN HQ

2.       Drought Management Officer

3.       Kenya Adaptation to Climate Change in Arid Land

4.       Catholic Diocese Of Kenya 

5.       ACTION AID

6.       POLYTECHNIC

7.       MUKY ORDAP - CBO

8.       WEMHIS

9.       ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Kyuso Maarifa Centre organise a motivation day

Kyuso Maarifa centre has been offering advisory services to the arid lands communities of Ukambani since 2005 . Most of the advices has been on agricultural , climate change  and marketing information to the farming community in the area. A broad survey carried out by the Field officer Mr. John Njue shows that the youth has not been embracing Agricultural activities since after competing their secondary eduction level they migrate to urban centre. Most of the youth especially Young boys of this area end up in Garissa, Nairobi and Mombasa and less are left to venture in economic activities in the area.

Kyuso Maarifa Centre has decided to be organizing motivational days twice a month especially to the ICT trainees in the centre so that they may embrace development activities such as agribusiness, value addition and self employment.

This month the centre held one where 60 participants (15 Male 45 Female ) participated. The trainees were briefed on the importance of career development since most of the youth thought computer training at ALIN was enough to drive them into employment. What came out of the meeting is that computer skills is a support to a course that one will take.

The trainees were motivated a were told to be aggressive, determined and courage in live. The field officer used a quote by Churchill to put this through: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts." – Churchill 

The meeting was coordinated by the ICT trainer Mr. Julius Matei and an Intern Miss Joyce Nafula Wasike.

Demo Plots the way to go

Demonstration plot is a farm unit assigned for testing and validation of techniques and agricultural products.

Many organizational and government departments  in Arid and semi arid areas of Kenya have tried different ways of disseminating information to the local communities.

In Kyuso district, Kitui county of Kenya Non-Governmental organization  and line ministries  have adopted demonstration farm as a dissemination period.

This method is able to reach even the illiterate and semi illiterate since the techniques involves observation rather than listening and talking.   

Demonstration plots has been used the ministry of agriculture, Action Aids and Kenya red cross where through Demo Plots, Farmers Learn the Value of Improved Seed.

 I would strongly recommend the training of local farmers through demonstration plots and field days through out the country. 

Purpose of Demo plot

     (a) Test New or improved varieties of agricultural and horticultural crops.

     (b) Handling and management of different kind of soils.

     (c) Learn the adaptability of certain soils to certain crops.

     (d) Test and vailde Improved cultural methods in the growing and harvesting of crops.

   

METHODS USED TO PROPAGATE Melia volkensii

There are several methods that we were able to learn from the group members that were in the meeting. First, Mrs. Kamori Mutua was able to explain to us how she was able to succeed through the use of the method that John thought them. The other methods are those that the chairman, Mr. Mark Kimanzi Ngara was able to teach us.

   1^st method

            i.            Prepare a seed bed

          ii.            Place the seed in the seedbed. (The seed should be mature)

         iii.            Cover with fresh manure.(this is to burn the seed coat)

        iv.            Water the seedbed with clean water till it germinate.

          v.            Transfer the seedling to the required land.

        vi.            Practice silviculture in order to get a good quality timber. For example thinning, pruning

N/B:  Another alternative to increase the rate of germination is to burn the seed. The seed coat is hard and therefore can cause the seed to take long time to germinate.

2^nd method

         i.            Dig a hole of a reasonable  depth
       ii.            Place the seed in the hole and cover with some saw dust.
      iii.            Burn the saw dust  carefully till seed coat is burnt making sure the seed doesn’t burn
     iv.            Cover with ready manure and wait for the seed to germinate.
       v.            Practice silviculture in order to get good quality timber.

ICT Training Testimonies

Kyuso Maarifa centre has been offering free computer training to the community of Ukambani since 2005. This time round the Maarifa centre has been conducting mass ICT training to all interested member of the community without discrimination. Before the training the trainee are oriented and having every trainee give their preferred time of training. The Training are distributed into a session of 2hrs each and therefore 4session a day. So far we have managed to train 172 trainees (70 Male 102 Female ). Enjoy listening at their testimonies

WATER HARVESTING FOR ASAL MAIZE PRODUCTION USING MODIFIED ZAI PITS

MAIZE PRODUCTION USING MODIFIED ZAI PITS

Women digging Modified Zai pit holes in Mivukoni, Kyuso, Kenya

Introduction

Maize is one of the most popular crops in agro ecological zone LM4 in Kyuso district. Kyuso district experiences an average annual rain fall ranging 300 to 600 millimeters in two seasons per year. Due to the erratic nature of the rains, there is a crop failure for 3 in every 5 consecutive seasons. This calls for water harvesting as an intervention to address the moisture shortage that causes the inherent crop failure. 

Modified Zai pits 
Zai pits as a water harvesting technology integrates a variety of factors to avail moisture to the growing crop to attain physi­ological maturity as follows:

• Cultivated (cropped) area: The soil condition of the cropped area must be well prepared to reduce any soil related limita­tions for optimum crop establishment and growth

• Catchment area: This must be sufficient to generate the extra moisture required in the form of runoff. A Catchment cropped area ratio of 3:1 has been found appropriate.

• Catchment characteristics: As much as possible the catch­ment should be modified to minimize infiltration. This may be achieved through increasing the catchment gradient towards the cropped area and compaction.

• Efficiency: In order to optimize the crop yield, both the normal rains and the runoff that collects at the cropped area must be used efficiently by the crop. All moisture losses must be minimized. The right crop variety with vigour must be planted early enough to gain from all the moisture experienced at the cropped area. It is advantageous to plant with Phosphorus containing fertilizers for early crop root establishment. Top dressing with Nitrogen and use of farm yard manure for provision of extra nutrients and moisture retention is necessary. Since weeds will compete for mois­ture and nutrients, weed control will be of necessity. Use of mulch will reduce evaporation losses. In addition since a health crop will use the soil resources efficiently, it will be necessary to protect the crop against pests and diseases.  Read More>>

Kyuso Maarifa Centre a marketing bridge

Due to the linkage we have with our farmers institution international and national have started using the Centre to disseminate market information to farming communities.

Below is a institution requesting for market of some farm produce through Kyuso maarifa centre>

 Dear Sir/Madam,

We are an environmental company based in Uganda. Our activities
include jointly working with grass-root (peasant) farmers in project
that we believe benefit farmers financially, socially as well as the
environment.

Currently, we are poised to start production of gadam Beer with the
goal of supplying the East African breweries especially now that the
East African Federation is moving into full swing.

We therefore, desire to have Kenyan produced gadam Seeds (Grains- NOT
SEEDS) of 2011 crop.
Please do let us know if you can supply our company with 36mts  of the
Gadam Sorghum packed in 90kg bags. Price should be based on
Ex-Nairobi, KENYA..

We wait for your fast response.

CHARLES OBUA

If you have this produce respond to:

Legend Evangel [greennovateuganda@gmail.com]

and copy to : Kyusomaarifa@alin.net