Opportunity in disaster

By: Joyce Okuta

Nabara Self Help Group is based in Salabani location approximately 13 Kms from Marigat town. The area is accessible through a dusty and perilous road especially during rainy season. It consists of 52 youth among these 32 are male while 20 are Female.

Some of the houses that were submerged by bursting of Lake Baringo

It was formed in 2012 after the communities living around Lake Baringo were displaced due to floods; this led to loss of lives and properties. The group came together with a common interest to see how they would use the floods for development.

How they began 
Since the group members are youth, they decided to pull labor by creatively digging trenches to harvest the lake water and a reservoir for irrigating their crops. They pump water using generators in their 10 acre piece of land owned by the group, they practice furrow irrigation.

Water reservoir where the group pumps water for irrigation

The group planted water melon on 6 acres and had bumper harvest, they got over KSh 800,000. This gave them confidence to venture into other crops like vegetables, tomatoes, beans and grass.

Nabara S.H.G used the money to extend their farm, bought sahiwal bull for upgrading programme within the group. Members who were displaced were able to buy land and built houses, paid school fees for their children, bought 4 motorbikes and saved the rest of the money in their bank account.

   

Redirected water from Lake Baringo to the main reservoir

The groups' innovation has recently attracted well wishers and NGOs who support them like Network for Ecofarming in Africa (NECOFA), they offer seeds, training and exposure tour. 

The ministry of Agriculture has also been very instrumental in training the group and linking them with partners for support.

Activities 
Apart from farming Nabara S.H.G have merry-go-round and they visit their group members in case of problem. They empower their members by improving their living standards through assisting the less fortunate in the society.

bumper harvest

Challenges 
Lack of Market for produce is a major constraint among the group since they rely on middlemen who exploit them. 

The trenches they dug are not wide enough to contain large volume of water thus sometimes the water is not sufficient to irrigate the farm.

The pipes they use are small hence one takes more than 8 hours to irrigate 1 acre piece of land.

Experience 
The group realized that the soil in their farm was fertile and reduced the use of fertilizer, a factor they attribute to abundant harvest. 

They also realized that water from the lake is salty hence the reduction in using chemicals.

Positive impacts of floods to Nabara Group in promoting food security.

 The group feels that they have achieved a lot as youth since they have converted disaster into development. 

Climate change project unveiled in Baringo County

By Joyce Okuta

Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) has begun a one year project implementation on climate change on behalf of Act Change Transform (Act!).

The objective of the project is to enhance community resilience to the impacts of climate change for improved livelihood in Baringo, Kajiado and Laikipia counties.

“The proposed Project will be implemented by ALIN in partnership with the Sunculture Company  from April 2014- April 2015,” said Noah Lusaka ALINs’ Project Manager.

 ALIN and its Partner visited Baringo County to introduce the project and to survey on possible sites for installing linear shower mobile Irrigation system on 28Th April 2014.

A meeting was held at GTI in Kabarnet to highlight and deliberate on climate change issues in the county and how ALIN would partner with various stakeholders to effectively implement the project.

The project is aimed at strengthening policy formulation infrastructure at national and county level. It will tackle a number of issues to address inadequate community capacity and lack of access to appropriate information on climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Speaking during the stakeholders meeting, Noah Lusaka said that, ALIN will work closely with county leaders, partners and will hold community consultative meetings to ensure success of the project. 

The county minister for Environment Hon. Caroline Tenges said that community resilience is prioritized in the CIDP and climate change is integrated.

“Communities in Baringo County have been affected by massive soil erosion leading to displacement. My ministry is planning to integrate adaptation and mitigation measures by promoting tree planting in every 10 homesteads.”Said Hon Tenges.

The project will also promote SMART agriculture through promotion of Solar power drip technology, ALIN has partnered with Sunculture Company to achieve this to support Agri-business.

The technology is innovative and will help communities adapt and cope with the effects of climate change increasing their resilience and governance of their scarce natural resources.

The project will play a key role in lobbying for inclusion of climate change in County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) and allocation of finances to support climate change.

The team paid courtesy to the ministry of water and irrigation based in Baringo County Head quarters.

Hon. Job Tomno, CEC member for water and irrigation in Baringo County said that the population growth is high and accessibility to water is a challenge to majority of communities in Baringo County. 

“The county has 150,000 acres potential for irrigation yet only 5,000 acres has been utilized.” Added Hon Tomno.

He promised that his ministry will support especially in promoting rain water harvesting for food security and will also give technical support in the ACT project.