Sexy, Swagger.....What is the real meaning of these words for the Youth In Agriculture?

The only way to lure more youths in agriculture is by making it more "sexy" is a statement that has been repeatedly said to the point it was no shocker when the office of the deputy president went ahead and shared their thoughts on twitter concerning the same

The youth must bring in their swag into agriculture in order to accelerate our economic growth.
— William Samoei Ruto (@WilliamsRuto) December 4, 2013

The question that constantly lingers in my mind is, will the use of such words/ expressions really help change people's mentality towards the same? Shouldn't we be addressing the issues of  young people disinterest in agriculture and more so, what the current pitfalls  those already in the farming game are facing?

What exactly is this swag they are talking about?

Is it the swag of being seen on the social media channels as being the first one to use lots of coined "sexy" acronyms in agriculture just for the sake of it,

OR

Is it swag that offers conducive environment for young people to venture in to farming just like any other business........access to credit facilities, land, markets and such

Is it the swag that  students in the educational institutions are presented with, that they end of dropping any agricultural related courses for Economics or other hyped courses in the institutions?

OR

Is it the swag that promotes farming as a viable business/ entrepreneurship course right at the onset of these young people careers and incorporates farming courses/skills right at lower primary for young people to grow appreciating farming?

Is it the swag that makes people higher in the authority make decisions for youths involved in agriculture .....

OR

Is it the swag that recognizes that young people are part of the wider decision making bodies in the country and their views need to be heard in matters agriculture and farming?

Is it the swag that sees assumptions flooding the area of youth engagement in agriculture; that the only part of the agricultural value chain they are interested with is the marketing part.......

OR

Is it the swag that sees youths given an avenue to participate in the whole agricultural chain and not only the marketing portion.....

The list is endless and my only hope is that by these acronyms, we are seeking out to address the challenges Kenyan youth face in agriculture if at all  young people are part and parcel of accelerating the economic growth in Kenya via agriculture. If not, then you swag might as well be ........

Alternative ways to food production: The right to food approach

 Hello readers!

 My latest piece for the Digital Development debates  February 2013 edition under the right to food focuses on alternative ways to food security, hunger and food production with special focus on  urban farming. Check it out! 
 

 Greenhouses in the Backyard
Digital Development Debates
February 2013 Hunger  Edition
Emmie Kio


Urban farming in Kenya has moved beyond just being a poor man's profession. Can it even provide a solution to looming food insecurity?

On a stroll through Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, one's eyes are drawn to a myriad of agricultural activities taking place. From a distance, greenhouses seem to sprout from any available piece of land and backyards. And that is certainly not all: As the greenhouses disappear, backyard vegetable farming, rabbit keeping, cattle rearing, fish farming and even pig farming sets in; and tassels of maize grown at roadside farms wave at you as you pass. This is, in a nutshell, what experts have called urban farming or urban agriculture.

According to the Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security, urban agriculture refers to the cultivation of plants and raising of animals within and around cities. It may be right inside a city – "intra-urban" – or at the outskirts of a city – "peri-urban". The major crops grown include tomatoes, beans, maize, sweet potatoes, kale (locally known as sukuma wiki), African leafy vegetables, arrowroot, cowpeas and Irish potatoes. The major livestock kept includes cows, goats, sheep, rabbits, pigs and poultry.

Urban agriculture is primarily distinguished from rural agriculture as we know it by the way it operates. It is characterised by labour drawn from the urban population, the use of treated or even untreated waste water for irrigation, and its need to be incorporated in urban policy planning.

A remedy against poverty and hunger
In Kenya, poverty and food insecurity are just two of the many development challenges the government has been trying to eradicate since independence. Urban areas are in no way spared the problems of their rural neighbours, and bear the extra burden of a high cost of living. Rapid population growth in these urban areas, either as a result of urbanization or births, accelerates these issues.

"Urban areas are in no way spared
the problems of their rural neighbours,
and bear the extra burden of a high cost of living."

Take Nairobi, for instance, the capital city, where the annual growth rate is currently 4.1 per cent. This has led to an increase in food insecurity here, especially among low-income earners and informal settlers. And with the population projected to rise to 61 million as of 2030, with a higher percentage in urban areas, new ways of feeding the population need be devised.
Urban agriculture seems to be a viable option, as it can utilize limited land area to yield quality produce. This is because it can incorporate technologies like sack gardening, which uses very minimal land space and water while ensuring maximum produce. Such approaches are particularly important to informal settlements where the available land is quite limited and clean water for irrigation is a scarce commodity.

(Read the Full story here )

Call for applications for poultry incubator loans

The Youth Enterprise Development Fund is providing youth with egg hatching incubators on credit. Young Kenyans aged 18-34 may apply as individuals or in groups.

Specifications of the Incubator

• Has a capacity to hatch 528 eggs
• Is a fully computerized automatic hatching machine
• Has a 95% hatching rate
• Automated temperature and humidity control
• Is capable of hatching all types of eggs
• Occupies little space (0.98 x 0.74 x 1.06M)

Benefits of the credit facility

• No interest will be charged on loan
• Friendlier repayment period and monthly instalments
• Warranty: 3 years for spare parts and 2 years on labour
• Marketing and linkages facilitation
• Training on handling of incubator at no extra cost
• Linkage to livestock extension officers/veterinarians

Loan details

Cost of Incubator	Sh. 198,600
Management fee: 5% (payable upfront)	Sh.     9,930
Loan amount:	Sh. 208,530
Monthly installment for a period of 36 months	Sh. 5,517 (Sh. 198,600÷36 months)

Grace period: 3 months

Mode of repayment: By direct deposit to the YEDF bank accounts quoting the code.

MPESA Service

Eligibility: The applying group/individual must:

• Have electricity and power back up in case of power outages
• In case of a group, 70% of members must be youth and all group officials must be 18-34 years
• Individual youth borrower must be 18-34 years.
• Show evidence of ability to raise 5% of the cost of the hatchery, to be paid upfront

Group applicants must submit:

• Duly filled  loan application form
• Group’s registration documents
• Copies of IDs for ALL the members
• Duly filled form by guarantors (details of acceptable guarantors is indicated  in the application form)
• Group minutes authorizing the application.
• Evidence of operating a group bank account for 3 months
• Extract of recent business records.

Individual applicants must submit:

• Duly filled  loan application form
• Copy (ies) of IDs for ALL the owner (s)

• Duly filled form by two guarantors(details of acceptable guarantors is indicated in the application form)

• Recent bank statement for those already in business and an extract of recent business records
• Or recent certified copies of bank statement for individual borrowers

Those already engaging in poultry production as well as those who are keen on undertaking the business are encouraged to apply.

For applications forms, click here .

Find the original post here  www.youthfund.go.ke/index.php/downloads/cat_view/55-incubator-loan-application-forms

New agriculture laws will now end colonial-style farming

President Kibaki’s assent to three key agricultural bills sets the stage for the most far-reaching changes in the sector since independence. 

 By consenting to The Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Authority Bill 2012, The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Bill 2012, and the Crops Bill 2012, he now sets the stage for the consolidation of functions of a number of allied ministries, the scrapping or merging of non-core state corporations and the commercialisation of profit-making ones. 

His signature has unified the 131 laws that have governed the sector and essentially removed from the law books the ubiquitous Agriculture Act, an 80-year old piece of legislation long blamed for the dismal performance of agriculture. The colonial regime created the statute to promote European farming at the expense of indigeneous Kenyans. 

The new laws, passed by Parliament during its final sittings, seek to transform farming into a professional, well-paying, internationally competitive and attractive to the youth. The agricultural sector is to drive Vision 2030. 

Depending on the preference of the next Government in setting its Cabinet, the ten allied ministries can now be collapsed into one or two, as envisaged in the initial drafts by the Agricultural Sector Coordination Unit , a multi-ministerial agency that has overseen reforms in the sector.
The ten subsectors are: Agriculture; Livestock; Land; Fisheries Development; Environment and Mineral Resources; Water Resources and Irrigation; Regional Development Authorities; Cooperative Development; Forest and Wildlife; and Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Areas.
Among parastatals facing the axe is the 63-year old Cereals and Sugar Finance Corporation. It is in debts, and its operation has often been questioned by Parliament. In fact, its liquidation has been inexplicably pending for over ten years.

Others are Sisal Board, Cotton Board, National cereals and Produce board, Coffee Board, Tea Board, Kenya Sugar Board, Pyrethrum Board, and Coconut Development Authority, Kenya Plant Plant Health Inspectorate Service, and Horticultural Crops Development Authority. 

Their functions will be taken over by a new powerful body, the Agriculture, Livestock and Food Authority. The Dairy Board, Kenya Meat Commission, Pig Industry Board, Pests Control Board, Kenya National Artificial Insemination Centre, will collapse into a Livestock Authority.
The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute will merge with other research institutions, including Kenya Triponomias Research Institute, Kenya Forestry Research Institute , Coffee Research Foundation, Tea Research Foundation, Kenya Sugar Research Foundation to form The Kenya Agricultural Research Organisation. 

The agricultural sector comprises over 60 parastatals. Already, reforms implemented in the last ten years have seen about 20 parastatals scrapped. “Some of the parastatals reproduce the work of others,” says Dr Sally Kosgei, Minister for Agriculture. 

Take the example of the Cereals and Sugar Finance Corporation; established by Parliament to raise money to lend to Government agencies for the purchase and production of grains and cereals. It is still in business despite the fact that the Government declared it insolvent about ten years ago.
“The corporation is dormant and technically insolvent,” said the Auditor General’s report 2008/9. As early as 1976, Parliament had singled it out among the corrupt parastatals. 

According to the new laws, profit-making parastatals will run as companies. “Every (parastatal) that carried out any commercial activity with the objective of making profit have twelve months to transform into a company and be registered as a company under the Companies Act so as to enable (it) carry on commercial activity.” 

The new law s discount any fears about job losses. “Any person who, at the commencement of this Act, is a member of staff of a former institution shall, on the appointed day, become a member of staff of ALFA on the same or improved terms and conditions of service as may be specified by the Cabinet Secretary”, the Act states.

Reblogged from the Star newspaper http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-103423/new-agriculture-laws-will-now-end-colonial-style-farming

Breaking off the poverty chains: Urban farming in Nairobi, Kenya

Quite a number of us have practiced backyard farming: Rabbit keeping, vegetable/kitchen farming, poultry keeping and so forth in rural areas. These we keep as pets or even as a source of ready vegetables and meat for our daily consumption.

The rapid increase in urbanization and subsequent rise in urban food insecurity has resulted to the mushrooming of this kind of agriculture in urban centers with scholars naming it Urban Agriculture .In essence it translates to keeping animals and growing crops in the cities. It’s either conducted in the cities (intra urban) through ways like sack gardening or outside the cities confines (Peri urban) in green houses, on off-farm plots or on large acreage farmers.

A boost to this form of farming has come by from the support several national and international organizations who have showcased the venture as a good means for solving the problem of food insecurity in urban centers of developing world. This in turn has led to Kenyan agricultural researchers incorporating it as an important aspect in the Kenyan land policy.

So how important is urban farming?

According to Resources for Urban Agriculture Foundation (RUAF) come 2020, 75% of most of the populations in Africa, Asia and Latin America will be concentrated in the urban centers. A majority of these cities economies are at their developing stage which will then translate to rising of issues like unemployment, inadequate nutrition, food insecurity and buildup of wastes in urban centers soaring up. Urban farming comes in to help mitigate some of these issues through its various actors the likes of the urban poor, the women, the researchers and mid -level government officials.
Urban farming shows a lot of potential in:

•  Ensuring food security and provision of necessary nutrition. Less transport costs to the markets are incurred which in turn offers a fair produce price to the poorest of the poor in the urban areas.
•  Boosting the economic status of a family. Less money is spent in purchase of vegetables and there is notable barter exchange with other commodities.
•  Social impacts to disadvantaged and marginalized members of the society. Women groups, orphans and immigrants by giving them decent livelihoods in urban areas.
•  Researchers disseminating agricultural research to farmers as they are able to interact freely with them know their farming needs and develop new technologies  based on the specific needs identified.
• Greening the cities. Treated waste water from sewers is used to irrigate farms while  waste vegetable matter  in municipal dump sites are used to provide organic compost in farms hence reducing pollution to these urban centers.

Research should be “bottom heavy”
In the video at the top of the post, Mary Njenga, an agricultural researcher in Nairobi, not only talks about her passion for urban farming and why she is glad of its incorporation in the land policy of Kenya. She also calls for a shift in the attitude and approach of researchers. “People are tired of researchers coming to take soil samples or crop samples, or yet another questionnaire”, she says. “Research should be bottom heavy. Innovation that researchers build, should come from the farmers.”


This blogpost  was written  for the GCARD Blog  by Emmie Kio, one of  the GCARD2 social 
 reporters.

Link to the original post :  http://gcardblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/breaking-off-poverty-chains-case-urban-farming-nairobi-kenya/#more-1663