KYUSO MAARIFA CENTRE OUTREACH

The video is a combination of images of Kyuso Maarifa centre staff on the field with farmers during the outreach services. Outreach is an activity of providing services who would have not accessed it. Kyuso Maarifa which one of the ALIN centre whose  mandate is to enable access, create knowledge and empower community hence improving the livelihood of the arid lands communities in East Africa. http://kyusomaarifa.blogspot.com/ , ALIN Website

KYUSO RESIDENTS BENEFITS FROM FREE DONKEY DEWORMING

Donkey is a hardy animal that provide a lifeline to families, carrying anything from water, building materials and firewood to maize, Sorghum.

Donkey is one of the animal that is most neglected by many despite the role it plays in day to day life. Most Donkey owners do not give their donkeys the proper attention and care as it is expected.

One of the ways this animal is neglected is by working for long hours, starving and most of the owners do not give it medical attentions. It’s due to this realization that the Kyuso District livestock development office led by Mr. Chege Ndung’u organized a 1 day sensitization/training and free deworming day to the donkey owners of Kyuso, Kitui county of Kenya.

  The event was held at Kyuso Stadium where over 1000 donkeys were dewormed. The farmers were trained on how to take care of the animal. This included harnessing, dewoming, and the ministry livestock under sustainable land management project funded by UNDP had invited the Donkey Sanctuary staff who took the front in farmers training.

The event was dumped “Punda ni pesa” a Swahili translation of donkey is money that was meant as linking the donkey owners to financial services. The event was attended by Banks staffs that encouraged the farmers to open bank accounts.

Speaking to the farmer and donkey owners in kyuso the district commissioner Mr. Peter Maina encouraged farmers to form group of donkey owners for business where he promised them a tender whenever the government has construction projects in the district.

It was clear that donkey have helped the resident of Kyuso since most of them have educated their children upto secondary level from fetching and selling water fellied by donkeys from Rock catmints, earth dams, shallow wells and sand dam.

Kyuso would like to urge the donkey owners to take care of this animal for its equal to other domestic animals. Secondly, we would like to urge people who would like to learn on how to take care of the animal to visit Kyuso Maarifa centre or visit http://kyusomaarifa.blogspot.com/

On Farm training - The way to go

Farming is best learnt by doing it. Traditionally farming was an art that was passed from one generation to another. Farming training could start at child early age where the student farmer could learn from elderly people so that when he/she grow old she can take the next step of establishing his/her own farming enterprises for substance farming or barter trade.

According to the farmers this on farm training method enabled the student farmers to familiarize with farming techniques as he/she grows. The Farmers from Kyuso District of Kitui county of Kenya can remember when the Farmers Field School existed. These schools were dubbed School without walls and they say that even the farm yield was high as compared to today’s.

The FFS training could takes into account the trainee’s needs, difficulties and plans. It could not last long and knowledge is quickly gained. The farmers had opportunity of seeing how things are done since the training took place in field

According to elderly farmers this has changed drastically, since the introduction of field/agricultural extension officer it has become hard for the farmers to conceptualize the extension officer’ training due to the techniques used. They added that these officer goes to school learn broad agriculture and numerous technique. They bring all this techniques to them and expect them to understand.

One of the issue that arise is that this learned extension officer are young and therefore don’t talk in a language that they can understand. These officers come with flip charts, pens, cameras which sometime divert the farmers’ attention to training.

The farmers feel that they would rather have a on farm training once a month than numerous under roof/shade. Kyuso Maarifa centre which is one of the ALIN centre disseminate the information to the community in a format suitable to the group. We use on farm training, video and Farmer-Farmer extension approach. The photo above show Kyuso Maarifa Centre trying to understand the causes of Kale drying even after watering with Kakoongo Dam Group.

Sisal Growing for Soil Erosion prevention

Sisal is a tough plant. It can thrive in drought conditions and in rough land with very little nutrition. Kyuso district of Kitui county of Kenya is one of the district in Kenya which bear the above qualities. Farmers here are are not aware of more importance of Sisal but recently learnt that It helps to stop soil erosion and captures moisture from the atmosphere. It can be planted any time of the year and harvested throughout the year. It even survives fire.

 Mr. Mwengi Musili started growing sisal in his 13 acres land, when he learnt that sisal could control erosion. he had been challenged by erosion in his farm for a very long time since he bought the piece of land as abandoned land and he had to reclaim it. He decided to use sisal for he has never heard in history of a drought that has ever killed the sisal plant and there fore its a drought resistant crop.

He plants the sisal along the terraces and he sisal has prevented erosion by 80%.  "The rill erosion that existed are now filled and am now left with three gullies that are disturbing me seriously and am looking at ways of curbing this" Said Mr Mwengi

Sisal is naturally safe and environmental friendly . It has very few disease which in most cases doesn't need any pesticide. It can be inter-cropped with other crops and even protect the other crops from fire attack..

Groups benefit from household water treatment units

Kyuso adult and continuing education department benefited with the solvatten water boiling apparatus. Solvatten AB, Lion Club Osteraker in Sweden and Kenya One World linking have combined forces to assist the people of larger Mwingi i.e. Mwingi Central ,Kyuso, Tseikuru and Mumoni, Kenya, to help themselves attain a better livelihood. 

Speaking to the Adult and Continuing officer – Kyuso Mrs. Agnes Mughi who is also the chair lady of Kyuso Maarifa Centre Advisory committee said the technology is best placed with adults.  “Adults frequently apply their knowledge in a practical fashion to learn effectively. They must have a reasonable expectation that the knowledge recently gained will help them further their goals.” Said Agnes.

Rivers, rock catchments, boreholes in larger Mwingi especially in kyuso are primary source of water in this area. The water collected from all these sources is not safe for drinking without boiling. By promoting the use of Solvatten they will improve hygiene and reduce water related problems for both adult and children by 80-90%, reduce poverty by increasing the time used by mother in economic related activities, promote effective and affordable intervention that is environmentally friendly. It’s meant to reduce deforestation by high percentage. The families will use less time to search for wood and for boiling and it will contribute to a sustainable development by counteracting deforestation.

The container has indicators and can boil up to a capacity of 10litres of water. The organization is selling it at Kshs 2000 in the area which they said it’s a subsidized rate for it cost kshs 15,000 in supermarkets

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Publications Baobab Magazine

Baobab is a quarterly magazine focusing on small scale sustainable agriculture in the East Africa region. It is primarily a forum for exchange of development ideas and experiences on key areas that ALIN focuses on; agricultural production techniques and climate change adaptation. Publications Baobab Magazine

ALIN has published over 60 issues of the Baobab covering areas such as agricultural techniques, participatory rural appraisal, cereal banks, community development projects, savings and credit, forestry, pastoralism, gender, water development, health, appropriate technologies and food security among others. View/Download Publications Baobab Magazine

Weather Observation station for Kyuso and surrounding

Weather forecasts and historical climatic data form part of the core information required by most farmers when making strategic and operational decisions. Historical data can be used to determine climatic trends which could assist in determining which crops and/or varieties to plant in an area.

The resident of Kyuso might benefit with a weather/observation from Kenya Meteorological centre. Talking to extension officers in Kyuso, the assistant director of Kenya Met  Mr.Ayub Shaka and  Mr. James K. Muhindi from the forecast department Heard from the extension officers that the weather forecasts that is depicted by Makindu Weather station does reflects here (Kyuso).

The extension officers thought it would be wise to establish an observation station in kyuso since the Makindu weather/observation station is 299Km from Kyuso and this the data they rely on. 

Mr. Shaka gave the Extension officers and local leader hope when he said that they can still establish a community radio station in the area through Ranet program. He said the locals should also contribute by:

1.       Provision of premises (2 Rooms)

2.       Volunteer presenter (KMD will interview volunteers)

3.       Steering committee (Volunteer)

4.   Land 2.5 acres (future development)

This will be an initiative of Kenya Adaption to climate Change in arid Land (KACCAL) and stakeholders. 

New pump eases burden for farmers

by STELLA CHERONO
Aside from using it as a means of transport, there is another reason why a farmer should buy a motorcycle – pumping water.
A new water pump, developed by Farmlink Africa and currently being exhibited the Kisumu ASK show, eases the burden of irrigation by relying on the engine of a motorcycle.

The device has a capacity of pumping between 22,000 to 40,000 litres of water per hour, consuming a measly 0.2 litres of petrol in an hour.

“This pump is mounted to a motorcycle Power Take Over, commonly known as the engine shaft, that drives it as it pumps the water from its source,” said Farmlink Africa sales director Mwangi Mbugiro.

He said the device can also pump water from a well of up to 40 feet, but the speed and the amount of water is dependent on the slope.

“On a not so steep place, the water is pumped so fast as compared to pumping it from a well that is deep” Mr Mwangi said.

The pump, he added, has the ability to pump water to as far as 50 meters uphill for a continuous operating time of 100 hours and is suitable for pumping water for irrigation, car washing, firefighting, spraying crops and for fumigating.

“The advantage of this machine is that it uses a locomotive that can be used for other purposes as compared to the common diesel water pump that performs one purpose only and lies idle when you are not pumping water,” Mr Mwangi.

Mr Mwangi said that the 1.6 Kg pump costs Sh 12,000, adding that the company has sold 30 units of the pump in the last three weeks.

“The pipe that is suitable to be used along with this pump retails at Sh 400 per meter but the pump comes with some few meters of the pipe” He said.

“There are so many inventions that can be used in agriculture to enhance food production and alleviate poverty and hunger,” he said.